THE STATUS OF CHURCHES AND PHILOSOPHICAL AND NON-CONFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REFORM

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, signed at Lisbon in December 2007, includes, for the first time, an entire article – article 17 – dedicated to the status of churches and nonconfessional organisations in the Community framework. Through this disposition, it is recognized the contribution of the religions and the philosophical and non-confessional organisations explicitly into the European Union and, at the same time, the European Union commits itself to maintain “an open, transparent and regular dialogue” with them. In this paper, firstly, we shall try to analyse which was the juridical position of both the churches and associations or religious communities, and the philosophical and non-confessional organisations before the signature of Lisbon Treaty. In this sense, we shall specially pay attention to the failed European Constitution that, in its article I-52, refers exactly to the status of churches and nonconfessional organizations in the European Union. And, secondly, we shall study the contents of the article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.