Preparatory meetings were held during 2010. The Presidencies of both the EU Parliament and the European Commission, as well as officials from DGs Justice, Employment, Education and Culture, and other EU Networks responsible for other key strands of Equalities, including gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation (such as ENAR), generously made available office space for ENORB when required.

In December 2011, a Constitutive Assembly was held in Brussels, and, in May 2012, ENORB was registered as a not-for-profit association (ASBL) under Belgian Law. During the same month, Launch Seminar was held under the auspices of the Presidency of the European Parliament, which brought together representatives of over 50 inter-convictional, inter-faith, religious and humanist, atheist and free-thinking organisations.

Conscious of the delicate and often controversial policy issues in the field of Religion and Belief; for example, hate crimes and discrimination; employment practice in relation to religious or non-religious beliefs; freedom of dress and to wear religious insignia; equalities in relation to gender and sexual orientation; education in a plural society. Many of these issues are primarily the domain of member states, but they also have implications across national boundaries, for all religion/belief groups, and for the EU.

ENORB members began a shared commitment to meeting: for regular dialogue, to initiate action to combat discrimination and promote mutual understanding, and to reporting back to their own organisations.

OUR HISTORY

The European Network on Religion and Belief was born from the convergence of several European organisations. The unique nature of ENORB is that it was established from very mixed realities – inter-faith and inter-convictional organisations, churches, diverse religious groups, philosophical and non-confessional associations.

The initial organising group for ENORB consisted of an Exploratory Group of leading members of Religion and Belief organisations at European level and from several European member-states. This group came together in December 2010 as concerned representatives of different belief traditions rather than as official ENORB delegates.