Overview of RelEP2 (2019-2024) findings. Is there a politicisation of and through religion in the European Parliament?

This overview presents some outcomes of the survey 'Religion in the European Parliament and in European multilevel governance' (RelEP2) pursued during the term 2019-2024. It focuses on the way politicisation may occur in two capacities: politicisation through religion by its effects on the functioning of the European Parliament (EP) as an institution and on political belongings and cleavages; politicisation of religion as an issue or a set of actors likely to increase the conflictualisation of European politics. Politicisation is defined along three usual dimensions customised for the purpose of our research: the salience of religion in MEPs' work, attitudes, and practices; its effects on polarisation (understood as a hardening of belongings and cleavages); its contribution to the expansion of actors and audiences involved in debating or shaping European integration. Our findings show that religion has limited salience in the functioning of the EP and in the practices of its members. Religion may work as a symbolic marker of distinction between and within existing belongings, and leads to a fragmentation rather than to the polarisation of clear-cut coalitions shaped by religious beliefs or issues. The capacity of religious actors or issues to expand the debate about European integration is not demonstrated.