Key facts of the case - The mayor of the local municipality decided that the local church had to be destructed and rebuilt. The parish council (Fabrique d’Église) was charged to cover the expenditure of the reconstruction works. According to the Belgian law, the local municipality had to contribute financially to repair places of public worship, so the parish council’s budget contained a cost sharing.
The local municipality appealed before the Council of State against the royal order that fixed its expenditures in the costs of the reconstruction works.

Main reasoning of the Court - The Council of State did not follow the arguments of the claimant and decided to uphold the royal order fixing the financial intervention of the local municipality.
In this case, the local municipality had a financial obligation to participate in the expenditure of the reconstruction works concerning the public worship places under the Belgian law whatever the qualification of the repairs. The local municipality argued there was not a question about repair works but the construction of a new church and for that reason; it could not take part of the budget.
The Council of State ruled that the construction of a new local church includes the reconstruction works of a former one. Therefore, the local municipality had to contribute to the expenditure of the construction of the new church.