Family – Investment in the Future

On Monday, 17 October, the European Parliament in Brussels held an event co-organised by the EPP group and the Confederation of Family Associations in the Carpathian Basin on “Family – Investment in the Future”. Co-hosted by MEPs Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz and György Hölvényi (Hungary), the meeting was attended by many young people coming from all over Europe.

Rodrigo Ballester, from the European Commission, was very clear on pointing that the issue of demography and families in Europe is an important topic that needs to be tackled, as the continent is getting older and older, which threatens the sustainability of welfare systems, and people have fewer children than they would like to. Therefore, family-friendly policies are crucial to revitalise Europe. This argument was backed by other speakers. Noting that the EU capacity to legislate on family policy is very little, speakers argued that the EU can send the right political message and support member states and presented some ideas of good policies for families. The Hungarian representative of the Minister of State for Family, Youth and International Affairs introduced some measures taken in Hungary and Ricardo Arroja, from the Portuguese Association of Large Families, briefly summarised the kind of policies available for policy-makers.

On a sociological and psychological point of view, Piroska Komlósi said that the attitude of society, especially parents, about marriage influences children’s attitudes and that nowadays the youth feel incapable of securing a lifetime relationship and thus do not want to get married. Hence, it is important to speak positively about marriage and family. In this regard, the media plays a relevant role and could have more programmes about the family.