EU Judgment in Case C-372/21 Freikirche der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Deutschland

Thursday 2nd February 2023

Judgment in Case C-372/21 Freikirche der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Deutschland

(Freedom to provide services)

Freikirche der Siebenten-Tags-Adventisten in Deutschland KdöR (Free Church of the Seventh-day Adventists in Germany; ‘the appellant’) is a religious society recognised in Germany, where it has the status of a body governed by public law. It does not have the same status in Austria.

In 2019, the appellant recognised as a denominational school a private institute in Austria which was being run by a private association – combining primary and middle school – and introduced a request for public funding of its staff pursuant to the provisions of the PrivSchG. By decision of 3 September 2019, the Bildungsdirektion für Vorarlberg (Directorate of Education of Vorarlberg, Austria) rejected that request.

The appellant brought an appeal against that decision. However, that appeal was dismissed as unfounded by judgment of 26 February 2020 of the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court, Austria). That court found that the school in question did not possess the special legal status granted to ‘denominational’ schools within the meaning of Paragraph 18 of the PrivSchG, since the appellant was not legally recognised in Austria as a church or religious society. It thus concluded that the requirements of Paragraph 17 et seq. of the PrivSchG were not met.

The appellant brought an appeal on a point of law against the judgment of the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) before the Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Supreme Administrative Court, Austria). That court, harbouring doubts as to the compatibility of the relevant national legislation (’the national legislation at issue’) with EU law, decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the questions to the Court of Justice.

Background Documents C-372/21