The Orthodox Churches and Europe Positions on the EU and European Integration

With Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus, there are four Orthodox countries participating in European integration. This represents a challenge for these churches. They categorically reject the West European path of development. Now the Orthodox camp has been set in motion. In terms of ideal types, three currents can be discerned: Most official churches support the European Union with reservation; Orthodox thinking picks up on the Slavophiles and sees European integration as incompatible with Orthodox thinking; Orthodox fundamentalists and rigorists who roundly vilify Europe, the EU, and the West.