ORIGINAL PAPER

Anca Parmena OLIMID

Struggle for Sacred After EU Integration.
Constitutional Developments Concerning
Religion and Freedom of Religion in
Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria
(I)

Anca Parmena OLIMID,

University of Craiova,
Faculty of Social Sciences, Political Sciences Specialization
E-mail: parmena2002@yahoo.com

Abstract: The present article presents the Constitutional

provisions affecting religion, religious liberty, and freedom of
thought, conscience and religion in Greece, Cyprus, Romania and
Bulgaria. All common constitutional provisions suggest a
homogeneous European approach due to historical, political, social
and cultural factors needed to accommodate religious pluralism in
countries with Orthodox majority. Needless to argues, all four
countries unified their own legislation through common
compliance with EU legal framework noting that there is little to
distinguish between Orthodox European countries in terms of the
core elements: the understanding of religion, separation of
Church and State, freedom of religion, conscience and thought.
Key words: Constitution, religion, freedom of religion, state,
church.

Since the last ten years, journalists, media experts,

government officials, politicians, Church officials in EU Orthodox
countries (Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria) i are focused on
the theme of the new religious arena after EU integration.
The fact that the topics of religion, freedom of religion and
nationhood are high on the social, political and media agenda in
Eastern Europe is special linked to the rise of level of confidence in
Church in countries of most Orthodox faithful, and to the current
debate on law and religion in Europe Union (key terms related to a
new attitude towards religion and political participation to various
events).
This specificity of Church-State relation in Eastern
Orthodoxy splits the academic community into two camps ii.
Daniela Kalkandjieva, researcher at the Scientific Research
Department of Sofia University, characterizes this relation by a
lack of theological knowledge and experience in democratic/
nontheistic type of church-state relations in the transition period
due to post-communist politicians. At the same time, the author
emphasizes the present-day symbiosis between Orthodoxy and
nationalism as a product of the nineteenth-century rise of
nation-statesiii.
The orientation of the paper towards a broader context of scientific
analysis (EU Orthodox countries) allows the possibility of the
avoidance of a political, historical, legal, and not least, religious
determinism focused on the aspects of the liberating role of
Catholic Church in Western Europe. In this situation, the media
coverage of religion and nationhood allows for a detailed
exposition of the constitutional dispositions, but also of the social
and political role of the Church that regained its traditional role in
Eastern Europe after the transitioniv.
As to the impact on the political system, most of the media
analyses converge towards the acceptance of the following
components: Church behaviour during late-2000s economic crisis,
religious freedom and regime of cults (legal and constitutional
provisions), media coverage and specific terms appearance v.
Thus, the analysis of the media coverage of religion,
freedom of religion and nationhood pictures a multifunctional
approach: political events (EU integration, electoral and political
offer, electoral campaign themes, institutional changes (at
ministerial level), the media-church officials relationship, electoral
performance etc. In a plural-conditional environment (issues

related to the moral, ethical, religious, and legal justifications of

the institutionalization of Churchs position in European societies,
the media dynamics), the working hypothesis starts from the
changes in church-media-political environment relationship and
the responsibility for Church officials appearances that lead to
media ambiguous instability.
The first part of the analysis starts with presenting the
understandings of church and politics that can be used as a
necessary analysis limited to the EU Orthodox countries. Other
accounts of the different definitions and points of............

i* Parts of this paper have been presented at the Second International Conference After
Communism. East and West under Scrutiny, 2-3 March 2012, Craiova, House of the
University under the title Anca Parmena Olimid, Struggle for Sacred After EU Integration:
What Church-State Relations Are or Are Not in Eastern Europe (A Media Coverage of
Religion and Nationhood in Balkan Orthodoxy). We took into account the date of EU
integration for the four countries: Greece (1981), Cyprus (2004), Romania and Bulgaria
(2007).

ii Daniela Kalkandjieva, A Comparative Analysis on Church-State Relations in Eastern

Orthodoxy: Concepts, Models, and Principles in Journal of Church and State, vol. 53,
no. 4/ 2011, pp 594-595.

iii Ibidem, p.

597.

iv For a more detailed analysis on the particular situation of the churches in East and
Central Europe, see Mikls Tomka, Church, State and Society in Eastern Europe, The
Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Washington, The Council for Research in
Values and Philosophy, 2005, pp. 100-101.

v For a compared analysis on how general media practices affect reporting on migration
issues and migrants cultural identity see Ctlina Maria Georgescu, Stereotypes,
migrants and the media: an analysis of the Romanian press on migration in Revista de
tiine Politice. Revue des Sciences Politiques, no. 29/ 2011, pp. 53-64.