Researchers have usually dealt with the Europeanisation of Islam at the grass-roots level (recomposition of religious beliefs, trends in interethnic and cross-border marriages, mixed couples, internet-based Muslim networks, large-scale European gatherings, and the role of religious leaders influential in Europe such as Tariq Ramadan). In this chapter, this process of Europeanisation will be considered at the institutional level with a focus on transnational Muslim organisations in relation to the European institutions. A twofold movement has taken place simultaneously. On the one hand, European Muslims have actively sought the opportunity to become actors in the European integration process. On the other hand, since the Delors presidency, the European Commission has developed tools in order to facilitate dialogue with religious and humanistic bodies through the Forward Studies Unit (FSU), a ‘think tank’ attached to the Presidency of the Commission, which was replaced in 2001 by the Group of Policy Advisers (GOPA). The following analysis will focus on this particular level of the European institutions, as it is both transversal and political. Very early the Commission wished to engage Muslims in this dialogue, but it faced difficulties finding representative interlocutors on a European level.

Following the signing of the Single European Act in 1986, and in the prospect of the European Single Market in 1992, a growing number of pressure groups opened liaison offices in Brussels. Religious organisations, mostly Christians, were part of this trend. At that time, both Catholics and Protestants increased their presence in Brussels through COMECE and EECCS respectively.