Policy on Religion in the European Union

Abstract

The main idea of article is that, even if EU has no competence in religious matters, what we can observe now is a creation of a very specific policy on religion. (1) Herein, I explain why the EU is interested in religion and how it is improving its competence with respect to it. Mostly, this is achieved by a transformation of religious matters into secular ones, falling under EU competences. I consider how the EU is treating religious matters in its primary and secondary law. Then, migration and accession policy are analyzed from the point of view of results for the religious structure of the European societies. Next, the issue of religion in the EU external policy is shortly studied as well as the impact of ECtHR and the European Court of Justice—ECJ jurisprudence on religious communities. Finally, we have a description of res novae in the EU approach to religion. The article adopts the Catholic perspective. This applies both to anthropology and to the institutional aspect. (2) The main methods used in the paper are analytical-synthetic and the analysis of legal texts. (3) We can justly talk about the EU policy on religion in statu nascendi. This policy is organized differently than at the nation-states level. (4) EU politicians need churches and religious communities to legitimize their political decisions and the integration process in general. They are tempted to “domesticate” religions and religious leaders and change religions from within. In this way, the political world subjugates the world of religion and takes control of it, which may result in a new kind of politics and legal resacralization.

Rola tożsamości narodowej i religii w budowaniu opozycji antykomunistycznej. Przykład Polski i Niemiec

“…przez Unię Europejską polityce zarówno w wymiarze wewnętrznym, jak i zewnętrznym (Mazurkiewicz, 2020).…”

Mujeres, igualdad y educación

“…Una educación en la igualdad que ha de estar también en el nervio de la educación religiosa integrada dentro del proceso global educativo en los sistemas de educación como una dimensión más de ese proceso, radicado en la riqueza de la diversidad personal (Gunnarsson, 2020). Una educación religiosa centrada en la igualdad e integrada en el proceso educativo general de manera natural nos llevaría mucho más allá de su enquistamiento en los sistemas nacionales y del intento de domesticación que se muestra como tentación en la política europea (Mazurkiewicz, 2020).…”

A Sociological study of the religious identity of young people in Central Asia and Europe (following the example of Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Poland)

“…Considering the structural state and analysing the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the functioning of various religious trends and beliefs in European countries, Galletti and Ghizzoni (2022) concluded that the Christian population is getting smaller, while the number of atheists and Muslims is increasing. According to Mazurkiewicz (2020), the influence of religion on political, economic and social issues in the European Union in the 21st century quite large, especially in countries such as Romania, Moldova, Poland. The need to search for new scenarios for the interaction of the Catholic Church with civil society, according to Wadowski (2019), is caused by the danger of a high level of distrust of citizens in religion in general and the loss of spiritual contact with the main representatives of religious communities in Poland.…”