The Legal Status Of Religious Organizations In Central And Eastern European Countries

The Accommodation Of Religion Or Belief In The Context Of Eu Integration: The Legal Status Of Religious Organizations In Central And Eastern European Countries Presented by: Dr. Đukić Date: April 11, 2025 Outline - The European law on religion; - How does European integration and EU membership shape the legal status of religious organizations? - Religious issues in the European integration process of Western Balkan countries; - Is the achieved level of protection irreversible? The European Law on Religion - EU has limited authority over church-state relations within its member states - 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam's Declaration on the Status of Churches and Nonconfessional - Organizations: • 'The European Union respects and does not prejudice the status under national law of churches and religious associations or communities in the Member States. • The European Union equally respects the status of philosophical and nonconfessional organizations’ • Recognizing their identity and their specific contribution, the Union shall maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with these churches and organizations. • Art. 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) • Art. 10 of EU Charter of Fundamental Rights:  Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or in private, to manifest religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.  2. The right to conscientious objection is recognized, in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of this right - A corpus of norms related to religion has developed silently, step by step, according to the needs of state members. - Documents Concerning The Accession Of The Hellenic Republic To The European Communities, Final Act, Joint Declaration Concerning Mount Athos • RECOGNIZING THAT THE SPECIAL STATUS GRANTED TO MOUNT ATHOS, AS GUARANTEED BY ARTICLE 105 OF THE HELLENIC CONSTITUTION, IS JUSTIFIED. EXCLUSIVELY ON GROUNDS OF A SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS NATURE THE ‫ و‬COMMUNITY WILL ENSURE THAT THIS STATUS IS TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN THE APPLICATION AND SUBSEQUENT PREPARATION OF PROVISIONS OF COMMUNITY LAW, IN PARTICULAR IN RELATION TO CUSTOMS FRANCHISE PRIVILEGES, TAX EXEMPTIONS AND THE RIGHT OF ESTABLISHMENT. The EU Law on Religion - The substantive body of EU community law concerning religion has been steadily growing since 1975 and is expected to continue expanding. - Revival of religion in the public sphere - Religious pluralism - The jurisprudence of the CJEU Seven Fundamental Principles - The value of religion; - Subsidiarity; - Religious freedom; - Religious equality (and non-discrimination); - The autonomy of religious associations; - Cooperation with religion; - Special protection of religion by means of privileges and exemptions The Impact Of EU Integrations On CEE Countries - The adoption of a hybrid or cooperationist model of state/religion relations - The agreements between state and religious organizations - Multi-tier registration systems - There are no instances of serious and systematic violations of religious freedom Religion and the Integration of the Candidate Countries - 2024 Reports only briefly refer to religion • Albania: concerns regarding increasing attempts by foreign entities to exert influence over churches and religious communities in Albania • Bosnia: discrimination based on religious affiliation, hate speech and hate crimes based on religion, and incidents targeting minority returnees (no mention of the unfinalized agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Islamic Community) • Montenegro: highlights that Montenegro's Constitutional Court dismissed challenges to the constitutionality of amendments to the religious freedom law and the Fundamental Agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church • North Macedonia: freedom of religion or belief remains constitutionally guaranteed and is upheld in practice • Serbia:  The legal status of non-traditional churches face differential treatment, especially concerning the acquisition of legal personality  The access to religious worship in minority languages across Serbia Current Issues - In Romania, the restitution of church property to minority religious organizations significantly decreased after the country joined the EU. - Securitization of religion: • Estonia denied to renew the residence permit of the spiritual leader of the Estonian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, for security reasons. - In Latvia, the Parliament adopted the Law on the Latvian Orthodox Church to grant it the status of a fully independent (autocephalous) church. - Lithuanian Prime Minister supported an appeal made by several Lithuanian Orthodox Christians seeking to leave Moscow's jurisdiction - Ukrainian Parliament passed the Law on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations Conclusions - European law on religion will continue to evolve - Variety of different configurations of state-religion relations - Preferential treatment of dominant religions - Stricter registration requirements for smaller religious groups, - Increasing concerns about the securitization of religion