Abstract

The regulation of religion by European Institutions cannot be compared to any model of existing Church/State relations in the Member States. New tools are therefore needed to understand the religious policy of the President of the Commission. This article proposes categories drawn from political science: the different modes of intermediation of interests (pluralist/neo-corporatist). Using this interpretive framework, it seems that the EU's mode of managing religious affairs is "de facto" pluralist, though it has tendencies towards neo-corporatism. This hybrid situation is referred to as an institutionalisation of pluralism. Relations between the EU and religions develop alongside relations between the EU and civil society. Finally, this article insists on the socializing role of the "fora" of dialogue between EU/religions, where one finds a late modern experiment in the recomposition of relations between religions and politics.