Pantelidou v. Greece, dec., No. 36267/19, ECtHR (First Section), 19 october 2019

Arbitrary occupation of a public space in order to establish a place of worship. Non violation of article 9 of the ECHR.

1. Article 9 of the ECHR guarantees, in principle, the right to constitute, open and manage places and building consecrated to the religious worship. Therefore, issues relating to religious buildings, including costs resultant from the tax regime of such buildings, might have significant repercussions on the exercise of the right, by the members of a religious group, to manifest their beliefs. Above all, if a religious community cannot have a place to practice its worship, this right would be substantially emptied of content.

2. Article 9 of the ECHR does not guarantee a religious community any right to obtain a place of worship from the public authorities. The fact that the national authorities have tolerated for a certain period the use for religious purposes of a public building, by persons having no legal title to do so, does not give rise to any positive obligation in the head of these authorities.
(In the present case, a religious community had arbitrarily encroached on the public sphere in order to establish and manage a place of worship incompatible with urban planning. According to the Court, the public interest in rational urban development had to prevail over the liturgical needs expressed by the applicant community. The application is manifestly ill-founded)