Europe and Religions: the Dialogue between the European Commission and Churches or Religious Communities

Abstract

The Treaties establishing the European Community and the European Union make no mention of churches or religious communities. However, the Amsterdam Treaty, which came into force on 1 May 1999, is accompanied by a declaration stating that the Union “respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the Member States”. Despite the lack of a legal basis, the European Commission began in the early 1990s to develop and maintain relations with the Christian churches and other religious communities. These informal but regular links were forged largely at the request of the churches and religious communities. In the face of Europeanization, churches and spiritual associations are under pressure to adapt their own structures to the changing context and to harmonize their forms of organization with the newly emerging, enlarged “public space”, i.e. the European Union.

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