The Case for Tolerance as a European Value
Renáta Uitz is professor of law and government at the Royal Holloway Law School, University of London, and senior research fellow at the Democracy Institute of Central European University (CEU), Budapest. This post formed part of a keynote address a conference on “FORB and the European Union” sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Freedom of Religion or Belief (ISFORB) at the Evangelical Theological Faculty (ETF Leuven), 7–8 May 2026. It is also based on a presentation at the “Religious Freedom, Flourishing Societies, and the Role of Law” workshop sponsored by the ICLRS at Christ Church, University of Oxford, 27–28 July 2026. Research for this post was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation though the CEU project Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East-Central Europe.
The minimum conditions of belonging to the European Union (EU) were recently spelled out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the values judgment (Case C-769/22, European Commission v. Hungary (21 April 2026)). Responding to the rule of law crisis, CJEU case law to date has focused on values set out expressly in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) such as the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights. Other contenders for EU values emerging on the heels of the migration crisis include solidarity in the face of religious diversity (based on TEU Article 2) and animal welfare as a rationale for limitations on ritual slaughter (based on Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and Article 37 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EUCFR)). Christianity (as the defining feature of European culture) is also a prominent contender, with discussions focusing on the EU’s role in protecting Christianity, Christian values, and Christian civilization.
