Religion

: Church in Denmark (Photo: Lis Lak Risager)

The Treaty of Nice and the Charter on Fundamental Rights forbid negative discrimination on grounds of political belief, sex, or religion (Art. 13 TEC and Art. 21 of the Charter). The exception is a special EU directive that allows discrimination on the grounds of sex when a church employs a priest (see Directive 2000/78/CE from 27 November 2000).

It is a matter for the EU Court in Luxembourg to determine the boundaries of illegal discrimination, and what is justified by religious or theological belief. This raises such issues as to the right of a religious school to sack a teacher who changes religion.
It also poses questions such as:

Is the Danish State acting illegally by supporting the Danish State Church and discriminating against other churches?
May abortion be forbidden on religious grounds, and the EU legal right of freedom to supply abortion services be restricted, even though a country has no special treaty protocol like those negotiated by Ireland and Malta?

The future

It has been proposed that religion is included in the Constitution as one of the Union’s values. However, this was refused by the Praesidium. In the Draft Constitution a sentence on the Union´s religious heritage has been inserted into the preamble an Art. I-51 calls for a dialogue with the different churches granting them their status.

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