Germany’s Widespread Religious Segregation Endorsed by the European Union for a Decade

As of October 5, 2024, Germany submitted 512 public tenders to the EU, all of which were accepted and published by the EU Tenders Transparency Portal, despite containing discriminatory provisions. These tenders, submitted during the first nine months of the year, included a mandatory “Bidder’s declaration of protection” targeting a specific religious group, which had to be filled in on “form 2496” for the submission to be valid.

One of the tenders involved “advanced services in preparation for the construction of a future excavation pit shoring for the new center at the Nuremberg Clinic” (Ref. 598098-2024), while another related to the “supply of electrical energy for Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH in 2025 and 2026” (Ref. 637171-2024). The connection between the bidders’ religious affiliation and these public tenders remains unclear. Many are questioning why the EU would endorse such exclusionary criteria instead of rejecting Germany’s applications outright.

The Scope of the Problem: Over 3,000 Cases

This systemic form of segregation, which has violated the Directive 2014/24/EU for a decade, is widely recognized. Contracts valued over 140,000 EUR are publicly disclosed, allowing scrutiny.

Statistics from the past ten years show a growing trend in these discriminatory tenders: 81 in 2014, 156 in 2015, 173 in 2016, 163 in 2017, 215 in 2018, 284 in 2019, 294 in 2020, 370 in 2021, 432 in 2022, 493 in 2023, and 512 in 2024, totaling 3,173 tenders. These figures were presented at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference on October 7, 2024, and are available on the OSCE website.

The PLACEHOLDER6c4f04810b725415 stipulates that the awarding of public contracts by EU member states must uphold the principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), including equal treatment, non-discrimination, mutual recognition, proportionality, and transparency. Imposing religious-based requirements in public tenders constitutes a serious violation of these principles, as well as the European Charter on PLACEHOLDER349e2bb2ed132e92 and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Targeting the Church of Scientology

Germany’s discriminatory actions target the Church of Scientology, which is recognized as a religious or belief community in EU member states and other countries where such status is legally acknowledged, with the exception of Germany. This is true despite numerous court decisions affirming the Church’s status in other jurisdictions.

Given the seriousness of these violations, religiously discriminatory provisions should be removed from EU tenders immediately, or Germany’s submissions should be rejected to prevent further breaches of EU law and values.