The Council of State validated on Monday the free loan of a municipal hall to a Muslim association for the end of Ramadan 2018 by the city of Nice, which had been criticized by the Marseille administrative court of appeal.
In June 2018, a municipal decree authorized the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes (Umam) to use the Lino Ventura municipal theater and its parking lot free of charge from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. to celebrate Eid-el-Fitr.
Seized by Philippe Vardon, an opposition elected member of the national leadership of Reconquête!, the administrative court of Nice validated the decree in February 2021. But in December 2022, the administrative court of appeal of Marseille invalidated it , believing that the Umam should have been considered as “a religious association” and that it could therefore not receive public funding under the principle of secularism arising from the law of 1905.
Return to appeal for the question of costs
In its decision on Monday, the Council of State invalidated the appeal decision based on 2011 case law which authorizes local authorities to lend premises free of charge to a religious association, provided that it is one-off and that this respects the principle of equality between religions.
The loan must also respect the principle of neutrality and avoid any generosity: if it entails costs for the community which would not have been incurred for a premises left empty - heating, cleaning, etc. -, these costs must be invoiced to the religious association.
The Council of State therefore referred the case to the Marseille administrative court of appeal to determine whether the loan of the theater and the parking lot for four hours had caused costs.