Proposals contained in the EU's draft discrimination directive could lead to churches being sued if they refuse to give communion, baptism or membership to non-Christians trying to get their children into a church school, experts said. The Church of England said last night that it would raise concerns with the Government over the draft directive. It fears that if the proposals are approved in their current form, religious bodies would lose an exemption they enjoy under current UK law to discriminate on grounds of conscience. Religious groups warned that the anti-discrimination measures could also lead to gay marriage and homosexuals demanding wedding services in church. The draft discrimination directive would make it illegal to offer goods and services only to particular sections of society. It would apply to all organisations offering a service to the public, including hospitals, charities, businesses and prisons, as well as churches. Faith-based welfare projects could be outlawed if they failed to comply with the EU rules. One of Britain's leading human rights lawyers has predicted that the directive could become an "instrument of discrimination or oppression". Many church schools have admissions policies which cite faith, or membership of the local church, as one of their criteria for allocating places. When the directive was drafted by the European Commission last year, it contained safeguards protecting exemptions for religious bodies and upholding national laws on marriage. However, when the draft directive came before the European Parliament this month, MEPs passed a series of amendments which strengthened the package of proposals and stripped out the exemptions for "organisations based on religion and belief". MEPs also decided to qualify exemptions that allow for "differences in treatment in access to educational institutions based on religion or belief" by claiming that this "must not represent an infringement of the right to education and does not justify discrimination on any other grounds". They also passed an amendment that weakened a commitment to maintain "national laws on marital or family status and reproductive rights". Following the amendments, the directive as it now stands could force churches across Europe to accept atheists as members and open the door to legalising homosexual marriage. The Church of England said the directive "deepened its concerns" over how "competing rights" were being balanced in achieving equality. "Through the provisions it has included in domestic law on discrimination, Parliament has recognised that churches, other religious bodies and faith schools need to be able to operate without fear of legal challenge as they go about their daily work," a spokesman said. "We would therefore have serious concerns if the exemptions they currently enjoy had to be restricted or removed because of the directive, and shall accordingly be raising this development with Government." Legal experts said that the amendments were "a cause for concern" for churches as they made the law unclear as to how competing rights would be weighed against one another. They suggested that there could be expensive implications for church schools, which may have to go to court to justify their selection decisions. Oona Stannard, chief executive of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, said: "We don't need for schools to have divert precious resources to fending off assaults from European legislation. "It feel as though the European Parliament is antagonistic to faith and fails to see the human rights dimension of faith." Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for South East England, argued that Brussels should not be transferring powers from national parliaments to "Euro-judges" to rule on how churches are governed. He said: "As it stands, this legislation would not only threaten the status of faith schools, hospitals, adoption agencies and the like; it could also force political parties to hire ideological opponents or criminalise single sex institutions." Under the directive, power for making decisions on equality laws would be transferred to Brussels, with laws made in the UK needing to conform with the directive. Individuals dissatisfied with the ruling of a British court could appeal to the European Court of Justice to interpret whether the decision was consistent with the directive. The draft directive, which will now go before the European Council made up of ministers from each member state, would have the effect of outlawing discrimination by businesses on the grounds of sexual orientation, age, disability or belief. This is the first time that the EU has legislated on discrimination in the delivery of goods and services on the grounds of religion and sexual orientation. James Dingemans QC, who has worked on cases relating to the European Convention on Human Rights, has expressed grave concerns on the impact of the legislation on Britain. Mr Dingemans, who was counsel to the Hutton Inquiry, argued that religious groups could suffer if they were not treated equally when their beliefs clashed with those of other sections of society. "It does seem to me that, without mechanisms permitting the balancing of rights, the Directive becomes internally inconsistent by creating (at least indirect) discrimination against religious believers," he said. Simon Calvert, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, said: "UK discrimination law is already pretty extreme, as the forced closure of Roman Catholic adoption agencies shows. "The Directive would make things even worse by transferring ultimate control of equality law to Brussels, beyond the control of our own Parliament." He added: "The wishlist of amendments that MEPs voted for demonstrates huge hostility to religion. They want to strip out protections in discrimination law that are essential for faith-based organisations to function." Liz Lynne, MEP for the West Midlands and a member of the group responsible for the directive, said she was aware of the concerns of Christian groups, but insisted that it would be a positive move. "It's very unlikely that this will have any impact on religious groups and church schools," she said. "I think they're worrying unnecessarily. If anything it will help to stop prejudice against people who have a strong belief." The directive will need to be passed unanimously by the council. A Government Equalities Office spokeswoman said: “We believe UK law is adequate, but we will look at these amendments and consider their implications.”EU directive could open up faith schools to non-believers
Plans drawn up by the European Union to combat discrimination would allow non-believers to send their children to faith schools and could pave the way for gay marriage in church.
Sunday, 12 April 2009
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