21 December 2025
Winning by Losing
Up to now, religious communities in Germany could require religious affiliation for almost all kinds of employment. Following the CJEU’s intervention, the FCC in November 2025 changed this decades-long practice and thus accorded greater constitutional weight to equality and non-discrimination vis-à-vis religious self-determination. Yet it did more than that: it also reinforced the protection of religious freedom itself. Finally, the decision affirmed the supremacy of EU law in times of fundamental challenges to the transnational rule of law. Egenberger thus constitutes a substantial, well-justified, fundamental-rights-friendly, and welcome shift. Continue reading >>
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06 November 2025
Winning by Losing
The FCC has handed down its long-awaited decision in the Egenberger case. The decision seems to be a confirmation of the strong protection of religious communities’ corporate religious freedom and right to self-determination. At the same time, however, the FCC incorporated the standards set out in EU anti-discrimination law and CJEU’ jurisprudence. The decision is thus turning the page on a decades-long legal debate. It meaningfully protects the right to religious self-determination, and at the same time it is sensitive to the freedom of religion of individuals and the prohibition of discrimination. Continue reading >>
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