ABSTRACT
Introduction The religious dimension of attitudes towards the European Union (EU) has been an understudied topic across analyses of attitudes towards EU integration. More recent studies (Grzymala-Busse 2012; Scherer 2015) stress the importance of cultural factors, and in particular of religion (see also Nelsen et al. 2001: 192). Religion still matters, and older Europeans from old member states are more sensitive to their confessional culture, while young Muslims may perceive the EU as a cultural threat (Nelsen et al. 2011). The case of Poland (Guerra 2012) has already shown that Catholicism can become an element of opposition towards European integration, but it never becomes a basic element of Euroscepticism (see also Boomgarden and Freire 2009). Nonetheless, when religion is an important element of national identity in countries, which experienced a loss in national identity, such as Poland and South-Eastern European countries, religion is likely to become an element of opposition towards secular Europe (see Guerra 2012).
