Religion et droit de propriété

By June 2024, the legally recognised religious denominations in Bulgaria count about 230. According to the Religious Denominations Act, they have the right to establish, own, maintain, and use a worship place (Art. 6.1). [1] After the fall of communism, the attitude regarding religious property has changed. Religious denominations obtained an opportunity to restore their ownership over properties confiscated by the former atheist regime. The restitution included not only places of worship (churches, monasteries, mosques, and prayer houses) but also profitable assets like church candle industries, arable lands, forests, housing estates, etc. (Transitional and Final Provisions, §5.) While the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has restored almost entirely its belongings nationalised by the former atheist regime, the Muslim communities as well as the Catholic and Protestant churches have not succeeded in recovering all seized estates. At the same time, measures have been taken for the better protection of the assets of religious denominations. A recent amendment to the Criminal Code stipulates that anyone who “desecrates, destroys or damages a religious temple, house of prayer, sanctuary or a building adjacent to them, their symbols, graves or tombstones, shall be punished with imprisonment for up to three years or with probation, as well as with a fine of three thousand to ten thousand BGN,” i.e, about 5,000 EUR (Art. 164 (2)). [2]

The Religious Denominations Act also allows faith organisations to maintain, rent, or buy profitable immovable and movable assets (Art. 21.1&2). Yet, these religious structures are not obliged to report the income from their profitable assets. As a result, there is no information about the income received from such properties, nor about the ways of its utilisation. According to the Law on State and Municipal Taxes, the Directorate of Religious Denominations must maintain a register of the religious sites (churches, monasteries, and prayer houses) “Together with the land properties on which they have been erected” (Art. 24 (1).9). [3] Yet, the directorate’s register does not include information about the land properties of the registered religious sites. Most probably, this is a result of an omission in the Religious Denominations Act, which points to the duty of the Directorate to maintain the commented register without mentioning their land properties (Art. 12 (3)).

At the same time, the state and municipal authorities are allowed to concede their properties free of charge to religious organisations that have the statute of а judicial entity as well as to subsidise the latter (Religious Denominations Act, Art. 21.3). In particular, the state facilitates the religious, social, educational and other activities of the legally registered religious denominations “through tax, credit interest, customs and other financial and economic relief under conditions and according to the procedure defined in the relevant special laws” (Religious Denominations Act, Art. 25 (2)). Yet, there is no clarity on how the state subsidies are used. The results of the few audits accomplished by the state fiscal agency are not publicly announced.

Furthermore, these religious denominations have the right to own and maintain cemeteries in line with their faith tradition. In this regard, the state and municipalities can facilitate this enterprise by offering appropriate lands (Art. 24). Similarly, the renovation of religious buildings that have historical or cultural values is covered by the state budget without regard to the faith they are associated with. On some occasions, this happens with the financial support of EU programs. Finally, the recognised religious denominations are released from paying state and municipal taxes for their property (Law on State and Municipal Taxes (Art. 48 (1).ж).

Another post-communist development is linked with the right of the recognised religious denominations to build new religious sites. In this regard, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and more recently the Muslim community, also rely on state subsidies. In parallel, public fundraising campaigns for such purposes are also allowed. Sometimes, the initiative for the building of a new church or mosque is initiated by the mayor of the place or a local initiative group. Yet, in the case of religious minorities, the erection of a new place of worship might be problematic. The request of the Muslim community to build a second mosque in Sofia has been declined for years, but such demands succeed more easily in areas with an important Muslim population.

Legal Sources :
[1] Religious Denomination Act, December 29, 2002 (In Bulgarian).
[2] Criminal Codex, April 2, 1968 (In Bulgarian).
[3] Law on State and Municipal Taxes, December 10, 1997 (In Bulgarian).