Religion in the European Parliament's discourse on enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy

In recent years in political sciences, we have been able to observe a renaissance of scholarly interest in the role of religion in politics. At its basis lies refutation of the claims of the secularisation thesis, which assume the privatisation of religion in modern societies and its irrelevance to politics. Scholars today stress that in fact this has never been the case, as "religion is not and never was entirely outside of power, in search of an opportunity to be publically resuscitated" (Hurd 2012: 946, see also: Casanova 1994; Haynes 1998; Minkenberg 2003). As a consequence of this theoretical reorientation, religion has become an important factor enabling better understanding of various developments in the international arena as well as in the field of foreign policy, and as such needs to be taken into consideration in policy analysis (Haynes 2008: 294). This interest in religion and politics is also expressed in studies on the European Union (EU), especially in research on the European collective identity (Checkel and Katzenstein 2009: 15), the role of religious organisations in lobbying at the EU level (Steven 2009; Leustean 2012), and, only more recently, European foreign policy (EFP) (de Jong 2015, Foret 2017, Wolff 2017a, b). It is to this final stream of research that this article contributes. I will investigate whether and in what capacity religion (and which religion?) features in the discourses on the European Union’s enlargement policy (EUEP) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), as these two policies constitute components of EFP. Various actors and institutions are responsible for shaping the discourses underlying the formulation, execution, criticism and contestation of both these policies (see Góra, Styczyńska, Zubek in this volume). The articulations of these discourses take place at different levels, in domestic and international arenas. Among them, the European Parliament (EP) serves as a particularly interesting case. Firstly, the citizens of all the EU countries directly elect Members of European Parliament (MEPs), and this group, at least to some degree, reflects and presents domestic dynamics in this supranational arena (see Góra and Zielińska, forthcoming). Secondly, the EP functions in the European space in relation to other EU institutions, but also has various prerogatives in shaping EU policies, including EFP (Irrera 2015: 1). Moreover, the EP is involved in various initiatives related to religious issues, especially outside the EU (i.e. promotion of freedom of religion and beliefs, protection of Christian minority rights). This therefore all makes this arena particularly interesting for grasping competing discourses on foreign policy at EU level and analysing the role religion plays in their construction. The article unfolds as follows. Firstly, I briefly present the existing research on religion and foreign policy with a special focus on studies related to the EU. Secondly, I outline the recent discussions on the EUEP and ENP with a special emphasis on the dimensions related to European identity construction and religion. I then present the methodology of my research, followed by analysis of empirical data and the conclusions