INTRODUCTION

This chapter explores the main characteristics of the EU and examines how the Union and its member states deal with religion. It observes that the EU has evolved into a union of values and objectives that rests on the institutionally anchored political and civic values of the democratic constitutional state, that guarantee the autonomy of church and state and religious freedoms and rights (section 2.2). After this, the chapter contains a brief survey of the different ways in which the member states, both pro forma and de facto, realise these basic values (section 2.3).

THE VALUES OF THE UNION

According to the Treaty of the European Union (TEU, article 49), “any European state” may apply for EU membership. But what is ‘European’, and what binds European states together? This question is increasingly being asked now that the number of (potential) member states is growing and the Union's list of tasks also grows longer (WRR 2003a). In its report Towards a pan-European Union, the WRR concluded that geographical and cultural-historical approaches often used to define Europe take insufficient account of its dynamic and malleable nature. After all, Europe has a long history of fragmentation, conflict and, especially, shifting political borders that were all legitimised in various ways.What remains is not a fixed entity, but a dynamic social construct, an imagined community that can change according to circumstance and political leadership (WRR 2001: 32-36). The developments of the 20th century confirm this. During the 1950s and 1960s the then political leaders of the ‘Europe of the Six’ saw their experiences of destructive warfare and genocide as the foundation for joint economic action. Since the end of the Cold War, the aims of transcending national differences, and of consolidating peace, democracy and prosperity, have certainly lost none of their relevance. However the prospect of an EU of 25 members means that Europe is no longer seen as synonymous with ‘Western’ Europe. Hence, most EU member states, as well as the European Commission, have refrained from static cultural-religious, historical or geographical definitions of the Union. They recognise that a degree of solidarity and some geographical limitation is essential for communal action, without feeling the need for a blueprint with geographical borders or exclusionary non-universal values.