CJEU Case C-258/24 / Opinion
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CJEU Case C-258/24 / Opinion
Key facts of the case:
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social policy – Directive 2000/78/EC – Equal treatment – Difference of treatment on grounds of religion – Article 4(2) – Occupational activities within churches and other organisations the ethos of which is based on religion or belief – Religion constituting a genuine, legitimate and justified occupational requirement, having regard to the organisation’s ethos – Dismissal of an employee for leaving the Catholic Church – Article 17 TFEU – Articles 10 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Outcome of the decision:
54. On the basis of the analysis set out above, I propose that the Court answer the questions referred by the Bundesarbeitsgericht (Federal Labour Court, Germany) as follows:
Article 4(1) and (2) of Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation must be interpreted as meaning that the derogations contained in that article cannot be applied to a difference of treatment resulting from the dismissal of an employee by a religious organisation on account of that employee’s decision to leave the church of which that organisation forms part, where the performance of the occupational activities does not require being a member of that church and the employee concerned does not openly act in a manner that is contrary to that church’s ethos.
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Paragraphs referring to EU Charter
15. By its two questions, the referring court seeks clarification of the interpretation of Directive 2000/78, in the light of Article 10(1) and Article 21(1) of the Charter.
18. The purpose of Directive 2000/78, as stated in Article 1 thereof, is to lay down a general framework for combating discrimination on the grounds of, inter alia, religion or belief as regards employment and occupation, with a view to putting into effect in the Member States the principle of equal treatment. As stated in the Court’s case-law, Directive 2000/78 is thus a specific expression, in the field covered by it, of the general prohibition of discrimination laid down in Article 21 of the Charter.
35. In that regard, I would like briefly to recall, at the outset, that Article 17 TFEU expresses the neutrality of the European Union towards the organisation by the Member States of their relations with churches and religious associations and communities. According to the Court’s case-law, that neutrality is already embedded in Article 4(2) of Directive 2000/78, which aims to ensure a fair balance between, on the one hand, the right of autonomy of churches and other religious organisations, as recognised, inter alia, in Article 17 TFEU, and, on the other hand, the right of workers not to be discriminated against on grounds of religion, as recognised in Article 21 of the Charter, in situations where those rights may clash.
36. It is precisely to that end, as the Court has previously held, that Article 4(2) of Directive 2000/78 sets out the criteria to be taken into account in the balancing exercise which must be performed in order to ensure a fair balance between those competing fundamental rights. Ultimately, that implies that, in the field of equal treatment in employment and occupation, the right of autonomy of churches under Article 17 TFEU is subject to conditions and that that right cannot render meaningless the general prohibition of discrimination laid down in Article 21 of the Charter and, in particular, the criteria laid down in Article 4(2) of Directive 2000/78.
39. Second, it is clear that such an interpretation would also run counter to the individual freedom to change religion, which is expressly enshrined in Article 10(1) of the Charter and which corresponds to Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. The European Court of Human Rights has interpreted that freedom as representing one of the core foundations of a democratic society within the meaning of the convention and the evidence of the pluralism indissociable from that society, covering, in essence, not only the right to adopt or change one’s religion, but also the right to abandon that religion of one’s own free will.
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Paragraphs referring to EU Charter (original language)