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Church and State in Western Europe NOTES ON CHURCH AND STATE IN THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA 2011 Frank Cranmer Fellow, St Chad’s College, Durham Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff Law School Introduction These notes are intended as a very brief introductory survey of the considerable degree of variation in relations between governments and religious organisations across the member States of the European Economic Area together with Switzerland (which has a treaty relationship with the EEA). They began life as an Appendix to Church and State: a mapping exercise (Cranmer, Lucas and Morris 2006) and their purpose as originally conceived was merely to provide a broader context for the discussion of Church-State relationships within the United Kingdom. As before, they make no claim either to be exhaustive or to be in any way whatsoever a work of original scholarship. Their purpose is solely to provide an accessible point of entry into the subject for those unfamiliar with the issues. The notes are written primarily from a United Kingdom perspective and in previous versions I omitted the UK from the survey. Purely for the purposes of comparison, however, this latest version includes an extremely brief sketch of the differing relationships between the Churches and the four UK jurisdictions, based on an expanded and updated version of my evidence to the Council of Europe‘s Colloquium on Questions related to State and Religion held in Strasbourg in February 2007 Hyperlinks to sources and to further information are provided wherever possible. For a fuller description of the various countries‘ Church-State relationships the reader is referred to State and Church in the European Union (2005), edited by Gerhard Robbers on behalf of the European Consortium for Church and State Research. The following websites are useful sources of reference: the US Department of State‘s annual International Religious Freedom Reports (cited below as IRFR) which are updated annually; the Religion and Law Consortium, which has useful links to original documents; the brief notes on the website of European Studies on Religion & State Interaction: EuReSIS NET; the case database of the Law and Religion Scholars Network; a helpful summary of material relating to Article 10 (thought, conscience and religion) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union from the European Parliament; and the adopted texts of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council or Europe, many of which touch on issues of religion and the State. Whether in these notes or in other published sources, estimates for membership of religious groups should be treated with extreme caution. Some Churches are very precise and realistic about their membership statistics; others simply indulge in wishful thinking. 1 Austria Article 7(1) of the Constitution (Equality, Political Rights) declares that Austria is a secular State: ‘All federal nationals are equal before the law. Privileges based upon birth, sex, estate, class or religion are excluded.‘ The status of religious organisations is governed by the 1874 Law on Recognition of Churches and by the 1998 Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities. Relations between the State of Austria and the Roman Catholic Church are governed by treaties with the Holy See that are recognised in public international law and may be transposed into domestic law under Article 50 of the Constitution. The treaties provide, inter alia, that the Roman Catholic Church may make laws within its own sphere of competence and that those institutions that have legal personality in canon law also have legal personality in public law (Potz 2005: 397). There are three distinct kinds of religious organisation: officially-recognised religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. The following are recognised under the 1874 Law: the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church, the Old Catholic Church, the Islamic community, the Jewish community, the Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian and Bulgarian), the Oriental Orthodox (Armenian, Coptic and Syrian), the Methodist Church, the New Apostolic Church, the Buddhists, the Mormons and the Jehovah‘s Witnesses (who were recognised as a religious society in May 2009). An application for recognition by the Alevis was rejected in August 2009, the Government arguing that the Alevi belief was merely part of Islam – which was already a recognized religious society. (IRFR 2010: Austria). Communities recognised under the 1874 Law on Recognition of Churches benefit from the church tax and may provide religious instruction in State schools. The Government also provides religious societies recognised under the 1874 Law with financial support for religious teachers at both public and private schools – but does not provide funding for those of other religious organisations. It also gives financial support to private schools run by the officially-recognised religious societies with ‗public corporation‘ status, permitting them to engage in a number of public or quasi-public activities that are denied to confessional communities and associations. The 1998 Law established ‗confessional communities‘ alongside ‗religious societies‘. Religious societies established under the 1874 Law retained their previous status; but a new religious group seeking to achieve the status as a religious society must fulfil stringent criteria for recognition: a 20- year period of existence and membership of at least 0.2 per cent of the population (approximately 16,000 people). Recognition as a confessional community does not carry the fiscal and educational privileges available to a religious society, though a recognised confessional community acquires legal personality and may therefore hold land and enter into contracts. To qualify, a group must have at least 300 members and get Government approval for its constitution, its membership regulations and a summary of its religious doctrines. The Ministry of Education examines applicant organisations‘ doctrines to ensure compliance with public policy. Currently there are ten confessional communities: the Baha'i, the Baptists, the Evangelical Alliance, the Movement for Religious Renewal/Community of Christians, the Free Christian Community (Pentecostalists), the Pentecostal Community of God, the ELAIA Christian Community, the Seventh-day Adventists, the Hindu Religious Community, and the Mennonites. The Ministry rejected the application of the Sahaja Yoga group in 1998 – a decision subsequently upheld in the Constitutional Court and Administrative Court. (IRFR 2009: Austria). Most recently, the applications of The Movement for Religious Renewal--Community of Christians for recognition as a religious society was rejected by the Education Ministry and the group filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court. (IRFR 2010: Austria). Religious groups not recognised either as religious societies or as confessional communities may apply to become associations under the Law of Associations, thereby enabling them to hold property. The situation in Austria with regard to the length of the registration process has been criticised by the European Court of Human Rights: see Religionsgemeinschaft Der Zeugen Jehovas & Ors v Austria 2 [2008] ECtHR 762 (No. 40825/98) (31 July 2008) and Verein Der Freunde Der Christengemeinschaft & Ors v Austria [2009] ECtHR (No. 76581/01) (26 February 2009). In the latter case, it was held that the requirement of a ten-year waiting period in order to register as a religious community was unreasonable and in breach of Article 14 ECHR (discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 9. Belgium The Belgian Constitution provides that– Freedom of worship, public practice of the latter... are guaranteed‘ (Article 19). The State does not have the right to intervene either in the nomination or in the installation of ministers of any religion whatsoever (Article 21). The State awards remuneration and pensions to religious leaders; those amounts required are included in the budget… (Article 181). In addition, Article 20 of the present Constitution guarantees freedom from religion as much as freedom of religion: No-one can be obliged to contribute in any way whatsoever to the acts and ceremonies of a religion, nor to observe the days of rest. However, the State recognises and finances certain religious groups and ‗life stances‘: Roman Catholics (law of 8 April 1802), Protestants (law of 8 April 1802), Anglicans (law of 4 March 1870), Jews (law of 4 March 1870), Muslims (law of 19 July 1974), and Orthodox (law of 17 April 1985). Since 5 May 1993 non-confessional organisations have been recognised on an equal footing with the others. Rik Torfs suggests that though there are six recognised religions, the Roman Catholic Church is primus inter pares (Torfs 2005: 15), citing as evidence its role in the funeral of King Baudouin in 1993 – though it should be remembered that Baudouin was devout Roman Catholic who, with the agreement of the Government, abdicated for two days in 1990 so as to avoid having to give Royal Assent to a measure liberalising the abortion laws. Initially, the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Churches and the Jews benefited from Article 181. The Anglican Church was later added by King Leopold I – presumably because he was a lifelong Anglican who regarded the resident Church of England clergyman in Brussels as the ‗Royal Chaplain‘! The provision authorises State funding (the traitement) for the salaries and pensions of representatives
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