Brussels, 22nd October 2024
FAFCE’s 2024 Autumn Board Meeting will take place on the 5th to 7th November in Brussels. Members and guests will travel from around Europe for the high-level conference (co-hosted by COMECE). Representatives from family associations will then vote on the Autumn Board Resolution and hear reports about the work of family networks on the continent.
This will be the first Board Meeting since the 2024 European Parliament elections. It will also be the first since the re-elections of Roberta Metsola as President of the European Parliament and Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. Indeed, it was announced recently that the Commissioner hearings for President von der Leyen’s second term will take place from 4th November to 12th November, in part during the FAFCE Autumn Board Meeting.
As members gather in Brussels, it will be an opportunity to reflect on the year and the months to come. In 2024, we have seen the Belgian and Hungarian presidencies of the Council of the European Union. We have been active in engaging with topics such as demography and intergenerational solidarity, work-life balance, the abolition of surrogacy, the protection of children, and dignity and life. Always growing, we have increased our activity at the level of the Council of Europe, applied for ECOSOC status with the United Nations, and begun advocacy at the G7 level.
The year ahead is crucial for families in Europe and FAFCE is at a crossroads. Please contribute today to join our efforts as we focus on a disastrous demographic crisis that, not only grips Europe, but the vast majority of the world. In order to build our capacities further at the UN and G7 arenas, we need your generous support.
Today, as we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Paul II, we recall his encouragement of our mission: “Regard your families as a precious and irreplaceable gift; protect them with just laws.” (Pope St. John Paul II, World Meeting of Families, Rio de Janeiro, 1997)
