FAFCE held today its bi-annual Board Meeting, gathering representatives of Members Associations from all over Europe.
Sharing the same concerns for the future of Europe after the pandemic, FAFCE Members adopted a Resolution on “Family is the heart of the post-pandemic recovery”, reiterating their call to adopt “A new paradigm to put the family and family associations at the centre of long-term policies in Europe”. The President of FAFCE, Vincenzo Bassi, declared that “This resolution should be a Manifesto for these times. We will continue our work to convince the EU institutions and national governments of the crucial necessity to use the Recovery Plan and the EU budget for demographic and family policies”.
In fact, this resolution could not arrive with a better timing, as earlier today the Council of the EU finally reached an agreement with the the European Parliament on the next long-term EU budget and the recovery instrument Next Generation EU.
This resolution highlights that “emergency policies are crucial to prevent the impoverishment of families and constitute the fair recognition of their commitment during the pandemic”. At the same time, FAFCE Members specifically called “all European Union Member States to urgently include demographic and family policies in the EU recovery fund to ensure a sustainable future for Europe”.
Vincenzo Bassi stated that “With this Resolution we also wish to give a message to the European institutions at the very moment of the announcement of their agreement on the EU budget and on the Next Generation EU: we now really want this funds to be used as an investment for a resilient Europe. This means to invest in demographic policies to ensure an intergenerational balance. Otherwise, this will mean an additional debt on the shoulders of our children. We should invest for the Next Generation, not at its expenses. It is time to give trust to families and to recognise their fundamental role for our communities”.
During this Board Meeting, which took place online due to the current public health restrictions in several European countries, the Federation had the pleasure to exchange about its activities and to welcome two new Observer Members, the Human Dignity Center (Hungary) and the Life Network Foundation (Malta).
