Brussels, 18th July 2024
Today in Strasbourg, MEPs voted to re-elect Ursula Von der Leyen as the President of the European Commission. She was granted a second term by 401 votes in favour, 284 votes against, and 15 abstentions. FAFCE sends its best wishes to the German politician who is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) which is affiliated to the EPP.
In 2021, FAFCE wrote to Von der Leyen as President of the European Commission on the subject of cross-border parenthood. Departing from the fact that a child is not an entitlement and parenthood is not a right; rather, a child is a gift and parenthood is a responsibility. FAFCE’s President, Vincenzo Bassi, wrote a letter to European Commission President von der Leyen, stressing the specific challenges that cross-border recognition of parenthood would have for surrogacy and wombs for rent.
On a separate occasion in the same year, FAFCE reacted broadly positively to the President’s 2021 State of the Union address. The youth and the family were a focus in the working programme of the Commission for the following year of 2022. At the beginning of the 2022 European Year of Youth, FAFCE welcomed the initiative with the reminder that young people also want to be given support to start families, as well as finding dignified work.
The latest promises from Von der Leyen in today’s speeches included a commitment to appoint a Commissioner responsible for housing. She pledged to work to develop a European Affordable Housing Plan, as well as an EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. Von der Leyen said: “Europe faces a housing crisis, with people of all ages and families of all sizes affected. Prices and rents are soaring. People are struggling to find affordable homes.”
She continued: “This is how we can strengthen our society. This means ensuring that every region, in every part of Europe, is supported. No one is left behind. I am committed to a strong cohesion policy, designed together with regions and local authorities. I want Europe to be the best place to grow up in, and the best place to grow old in”. FAFCE reminds that families and networks of families should be at the centre of cohesion policy, particularly as families provide intergenerational solidarity and the antidote to loneliness amidst a demographic winter. This is why FAFCE has been proposing that the responsibilities for social cohesion and demography are managed under the same office at the Commission.
“One of the most fundamental choices we face is what kind of society we want for our children and grandchildren”, the President said. She went on to note that “there is not the slightest reason why women should be paid less than men for the same work…but there is still so much to do” on stopping violence against women, reconciling care and career, closing the pay and pensions gap, and ending female and old-age poverty. FAFCE associates with these commendable goals. In particular, FAFCE has been steadfastly committed to the issue of work-family balance, so that parents and families do not have to feel that their professional ambitions are obstacles to their joyful responsibilities to their children and families. FAFCE backs policies to provide more flexibility and family time, participating in the European Sunday Alliance which campaigns for a work-free Sunday and the right to disconnect.
FAFCE notes the President’s reflection on the experiences of families in today’s Europe. She explained, “we are in a period of deep anxiety and uncertainty for Europeans. Families are feeling the pain from the cost of living and housing. Young people are concerned about the planet, their future and the prospect of war”.
Von der Leyen also identified that “we must also do more to protect young people. Childhood and teenage years are the time when our character is formed, our personality develops, and our brain is shaped by triggers and emotions. This is a time of amazing development but also real vulnerability. And we see more and more reporting on what some call a mental health crisis”. Indeed, FAFCE’s Autumn Board Resolution of last year focused on this very topic, declaring that “families are the best allies for young people” in mental health crises. She then spoke about the harms of online abuse and addiction, which FAFCE has been committed to fighting against and has been working with the Shield Platform for the protection of children.
The President’s words on the climate crisis also echo FAFCE’s Spring Board Resolution of this year. She said, “for our young people, 2030, 2040, 2050 is around the corner. They know that we have to reconcile climate protection with a prosperous economy. And they would never forgive us if we do not rise to the challenge. So, this is not only a matter of competitiveness, but also a matter of intergenerational fairness”. The route to this intergenerational fairness is a view of ecology that considers the environmental and social responses as fundamentally connected. Therefore, the resolution asserted that “integral ecology needs at its core the recognition of the family”.
FAFCE also reiterates its calls to see the family as an investment, not a cost. In today’s speech, the President demanded “more investment in people and their skills”, insisting that “this mandate has to be the time of investment”. FAFCE’s Autumn Board Resolution of 2020 called on the EU and its Member States to “adopt a new paradigm to put the family and family associations at the centre of long-term policies in Europe: family policies should not be considered as a cost but rather as an investment in the formation of human capital for the future of Europe”.
FAFCE congratulates the President of the European Commission on her re-election. In the recent open letter to incoming MEPs after the European Parliament elections in June, FAFCE’s President Vincenzo Bassi raised the alarm on the demographic winter, the family as an investment, work-family balance, the protection of children, and the ecological transition. He also wrote that the Federation “would like to offer its experience in Europe and its ideas coming from the grassroots of our Member Associations all over the continent. FAFCE is keen to contribute to the solution of today’s challenges and to give voice to families. We will be happy to have a close cooperation during your mandate.”
