Why have countries from a Western Christian tradition generally joined the EU before Orthodox ones?

Question

14 of the 15 EU members before the recent eastern enlargement had Catholic or Protestant (Western) religious traditions. Of the 10 that then joined, only one (Cyprus) had an Orthodox tradition. The two Orthodox countries then negotiating (Romania and Bulgaria) joined late. The EU has a strongly secular ideology. So how come?

Answer 1

Are'n you  forgetting Greece? And what is secular ideology? Is that one who accepts people may have their religion and differences, everybody lives and respect each other, and the Richest Countries Help the Poorest to achieve the same economic freedom...

Answer 2

The religious difference is not intentional.  Bulgaria and Romania are countries who are economically, judicially and politically less advanced than the other European countries who entered before them.

Answer 3

Because the Eastern European countries had a bit of sorting out to do with economics and such after decades of communist rule. Nothing really to do with religion.

Answer 4

Joining the EU is a matter for them alone. It would seem the Orthodox groups remain more Conservative in their approach .They preferred to think more deeply about the Changes that might affect them and so they dragged their feet very noticeably.

Answer 5

You could probably find out more here:

http://foru.ms/f145-the-ancient-way-east...

Answer 6

As Calimero said before me, religion had nothing to do in the creation of the EU. Don't look for things that are not there.

Answer 7

Wrong it was the EEC, European Economic Community, that they joined not a dictatorial EU. The others are joining because they see vast funds that they can s***w out of the Western countries and no other reason and the only reason that they can do this is because the criminals in Brussels are now changing things so that they do not have to consult with national governments. This means that as with the Euro-vision they can now out vote the West and take all the money. Just watch the whole system collapse in 10 years time as the Western countries run out of money.

Answer 8

it has nothing to do with religion. The eu was created by western europe because they were free to do it. During that time eastern europe was under communist rules controled by ussr. After the collapse of the ussr, it has been possible for eastern europe to think about joining the eu but it has been a long process as the economy of eastern europe was in bad shape  due to communist rules compare to the economy of western europe.