He noted that the European Court of Human Rights is not the court of the European Union but operates under the auspices of the Council of Europe, which cannot oblige countries to change their laws.

He said the law had been amended in the meantime, and it was possible that the current ruling was not relevant. Rétvári said the aim of Hungary’s church law was to filter out “business churches”.

He noted that the Council of Europe’s other institution, the Venice Commission, had described the current law as allowing an exceptionally broad and liberal scope in terms of freedom of religion.

The court said the law violated the rights of religious communities when it stripped them of their church status. Religious communities’ loss of full church status breached their rights to freedom of assembly and association and their rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, it said.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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