“There is so much beauty in everything that begins.”
The Conference on the Future of Europe is a months-long effort advertised as “a unique and timely opportunity for European citizens to debate on Europe’s challenges and priorities” and to make recommendations for EU policies. Structured around themes including climate change, health, migration, and economics, it has been spread over time and space through webinars and in-person events designed by EU bureaucrats, and encourages participation through comments posted on online platforms. A final report on the campaign is expected in the spring, which will then be adopted or rejected by EU institutions.
As this publication has reported, though billed as an exercise in listening to citizens, the conference was actually designed and implemented from within the EU institutions—not from the citizens—and so it inevitably has the presumptions of the designers incorporated into it. As also reported, in its preliminary reports, the conference is yielding monolithic results that channel policies in only one direction. Regarding abortion, del Pino sees the conference as tending strongly anti-life.
“They are following the strategy of Simone Veil. The strategy is to replicate the proposal,” she explained.
The Simone Veil Pact was written by the Renew Europe group, which celebrates it as a commitment “to adopt the most progressive measures in women’s rights.” Signing the pact seals members in a contract to “guarantee women’s access to contraception and abortion, as well as to information and education.” In January, Renew Europe had called on the EU’s institutions to take up the pact, and the newly elected president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, stated that she would sign it. According to del Pino, the pact has become “the Bible for radical feminist groups” with the European Union.
Though there are member states and MEPs that take a strong pro-life stance, the adoption of the Mati Report shows that the current opposition to a radical pro-abortion agenda may not be strong enough to resist new attempts to codify it as a right.
“Seeing what happened with the Matic Report, the truth is that I’m not sure what will happen,” del Pino said, should pro-abortion measures come up for vote in EU institutions soon.
Before the final report from the Conference on the Future of Europe is published in the spring, the federation hopes to gather Europeans in Brussels and call for the protection of all human lives, beginning from the moment of conception.
“We want it to be before the final report is released so we can show it is not a reaction to the report,” del Pino said.
According to the conference website, the final report will be released sometime after May 9th. Del Pino said the EU Commission is using a tactic of distraction to avoid opponents anticipating its release, but the European Federation is in close contact with pro-life MEPs to be on the alert.
The pro-life greetings can be sent as e-cards directly from the One of Us website. They can also be posted to social media or downloaded. Del Pino explained that the cards are meant to be sent by individual citizens and not organizations as clear evidence that the pro-life values they advocate for are held by individual European citizens.
The federation launched a social media campaign earlier in the month and has also submitted comments to the Conference on the Future of Europe.
