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Religious actors are becoming part of the EU bureaucratic system, and their mobilisation in Brussels and Strasbourg in the last decade has increased dramatically. This book explores the mechanism and impact of religious representation by examining relations between religious practitioners and politicians in the European Union from the Second World War until today. This book seeks to answer the following questions: How do (trans)national religious groups enter into contact with European institutions? What are the rationale and the mechanisms of religious representation in the European Union? Ho

In 2015, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church issued an unusual statement declaring that the arrival of refugees represented a "true invasion" in the region. One year later, during debates on Moldova's presidential elections, the Orthodox Church endorsed the fake news that 30,000 Syrians were about to arrive in the country. Drawing on interviews in Chişinău and Sofia, the article argues that the European refugee crisis has led to an internationally-linked Orthodox conservatism characterized by five components: defending a mythical past; fostering close relations with state authorities; anti-Westernism; building conservative networks at local, national, and geopolitical levels; and presenting Orthodox churches as alternative governance structures. These components shape religion–state relations in predominantly Orthodox countries in the region and have had a direct impact on the ways in which religious and state bodies have responded to populism and geopolitics.

Abstract
In Serbia, during the 2015 European refugee crisis, the Orthodox Church mobilized communities in providing humanitarian aid before local authorities and the government issued an organized response. Two years later, in December 2017, with the support of the Orthodox Church, Ukraine exchanged war prisoners with the separatist authorities in Donbas. In both countries, the social and political involvement of Orthodox Churches in dealing with forced displacement was unprecedented. Drawing on literature review and interviews with 25 representatives of governmental and civil-society bodies, members of the clergy and academics, this article explores the ways in which, in Serbia and Ukraine, when states fail to offer support for populations affected by violence, religious communities have been among the first actors to take over state governance and provide human security. It argues that, by doing so, Orthodox Churches become open to politicization from state authorities. The article contributes to the study of religion and forced displacement by linking the politicization of Orthodox Churches to the concept of state failure.

AbstractBukovina, a predominantly Eastern Orthodox land, today divided between northern Romania and southwestern Ukraine, was the outmost frontier of the Habsburg Empire. Between its incorporation into the Empire in 1774 and Greater Romania in 1918, Bukovina produced an unusual Church. Rather than support a mono‐ethnic Orthodox community, as evident across nation building processes in Southeastern Europe, in 1873, Romanians, Ruthenians and Serbians (in Dalmatia) established a multi‐ethnic Church which rejected association with that of their Romanian brethren in Habsburg Transylvania. This article explores the lead up to the establishment of the church in 1873 and argues that, under the leadership of Bishop Eugen Hakmann, the Metropolitanate of Bukovina and Dalmatia was a novel ecclesiastical institution in which the clergy refused national identification while laypeople supported the growing rise of nationalist movements. This multi‐ethnic Church became one of the most intriguing Orthodox structures which would impact upon the emergence of national churches in nineteenth‐century Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.

<p>El artículo 17 del Tratado de Lisboa institucionaliza «un diálogo abierto, transparente y habitual» entre las instituciones europeas e «iglesias, religiones y comunidades de convicción». Este artículo examina la ruptura funcional del diálogo religioso en la Unión Europea y propone cuatro tipos de relaciones entre las representaciones religiosas o de convicción y las instituciones europeas: privadas o públicas, experimentales, proactivas e institucionalizadas.</p><p><strong>Recibido</strong>: 02.11.2012<br /><strong>Aceptado</strong>: 18.12.2012</p>

This article investigates the Roman Catholic Church's role in the process of European integration from the first Hallstein Commission in 1958 to the failure of the Holy See's application to establish a diplomatic representation at the European Economic Community in 1964. The article focuses on the Church's response toward emerging European institutions and shows that local mobilization in Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Brussels was instrumental in shaping relations between the Catholic Church and the European Communities (EC). The Church's position toward the EC, placing local communities as prime actors in dialogue with European institutions, reflected the sensitive nature of religion during the Cold War. Adapted from the source document.

This article investigates the Roman Catholic Church's role in the process of European integration from the first Hallstein Commission in 1958 to the failure of the Holy See's application to establish a diplomatic representation at the European Economic Community in 1964. The article focuses on the Church's response toward emerging European institutions and shows that local mobilization in Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Brussels was instrumental in shaping relations between the Catholic Church and the European Communities (EC). The Church's position toward the EC, placing local communities as prime actors in dialogue with European institutions, reflected the sensitive nature of religion during the Cold War.

Despite the widespread perception that religious actors were passive to the construction of the European project, relations between churchmen and politicians at the local and supranational levels have been a constant mark from the Schuman Declaration until today. This paper focuses on the mobilisation of religious networks in the process of European integration. It examines the typology of transnational religious structures, compares the main policy areas for religious/convictional actors and provides a list of religious/convictional actors in dialogue with European institutions. ; Politics; Religious and convictional networks; Religious dialogue in the European Union