ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the issue of public funding of religious activities that is important in the political and scientific discussion. is due as much to the economic crisis in some way putting restrictions on public resources, as to the multiplicity of contradictory arguments concerning the justification or the critic of the existing situation. All countries have mechanisms for providing public financial support for religious activities, even if this funding is more significant in certain countries and more limited in others. No national system can be considered to be consistent in this area, that is to say, adequately applying stated political or legal principles, such as those of separation, neutrality or the principle of equality. In every country, the system put in place for dealing with the question of public funding for religions finds itself under pressure' subject to discussion, criticism and proposals for reform. But in every country, changes, passing laws or reforms are very difficult and largely improbable.
