EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/391

(2004/C 88 E/0397)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2217/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(2 July 2003)

Subject: Violation of religious freedom in Slovenia

Given that:

— the Office for Religious Communities (UCR) was established in Slovenia in 1999;

— Natasa Sivic, leader of the Hindu community in Slovenia, has been attempting to register her community since 21 March 2002. The community has made all the changes to its registration papers requested by the office, but has received no written answer since the date of its application;

— Sivic accuses UCR director, Drago Cepar, of being responsible for the illegal situation in which the Hindu community now finds itself;

— fifteen months after the application for registration by the Hindu community and five months after that by the Buddhist community, neither has received a reply from the Office for Religious Communities. Both the Hindus and the Buddhists blame Drago Cepar for the delays;

— according to Buddhist monk Gelong Shenphen, this problem is common to all religious communities awaiting registration since 1999 and it is the office's job to register such communities, not judge them. ‘I wonder how such discrimination can occur in a country that is to join the European Union next year’, says Shenphen;

— according to Cepar, the matter is highly ‘complex’ and the state has not established criteria to ‘determine when a group constitutes a religious community’. He also maintains that the government is working ‘tirelessly’ to fill this ‘legal vacuum’, yet ‘how can there be a legal vacuum when 31 religious communities have already been registered?’ asks a monk from the Dharmaling religious community.

In the light of the above and bearing in mind that Slovenia is one of the countries that will be joining the European Union in little under a year:

— is the Commission aware of the above situation and, if so, what, if anything, has it done about it?

— does it consider the behaviour of the Slovenian authorities to be in breach of the ‘acquis communautaire’?

— if the situation is not resolved, what formal measures could the Union take prior to Slovenia's formal accession to ensure that it observes the principle of religious freedom?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(22 August 2003)

The Commission is following up on a regular basis the situation regarding freedom of religion in Slovenia as respect of freedom of religion is an important part of the Copenhagen political criteria for accession. Hence the Commission is monitoring the situation in this area, including through its contacts with international human rights organisations. It has also reported on this issue in its Regular Reports on Slovenia's progress towards accession, the latest one of which was published in October 2002 (1).

The Commission is aware of the delays some religious communities have been facing in registering their communities with the relevant authorities in Slovenia. This issue has also been brought up by the Ombudsman in Slovenia. According to the information received by the Commission, the Office for Religious Communities is now in the process of drafting new legislation in this area to update the existing legislation and to resolve problems in its implementation.

The Commission will continue to monitor the situation in this area, including the adoption of new legislation.

(1) COM(2002) 700 final.