Programme

Family is Europe’s wealth

The Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE), is acknowledged by the European Council as a Non Governmental Organisation with a participatory status and has regular contact with European Union institutions such as the European Commission and the European Parliament. The FAFCE serves as a European liaison platform for exchange of experiences of pastoral care of the family and family policy issues for its members. Our member associations provide important catholic expertise and contacts on local level and the Federation serves as a European umbrella organisation. Outwards we consider ourselves as a political representation for family interests from a catholic perspective, on the basis of the Catholic Church’s Social and Family teaching as well as of the testimony of faith and experiential knowledge of Christians in Church and in society.

Family is the centre and starting point for the formation of human assets in society. For us the family, based on matrimony of husband and wife, constitutes the best precondition for the success of marital life, parenthood and the development of children.
Family as a community is the most important social entity where the gift of life is welcomed and accompanied until its natural end. Emphatically we insist on the inalienable dignity of every person, especially at the outset and the end of life.
Family is, as a general rule, the social space where children establish reliable relations, gain confidence and thus grow up to be independent persons. Therefore parents must be acknowledged as the first and most important educators of their children and be supported in their educational task.
Children are the most important resource for our future. Hence it is the common responsibility of all social domains to provide parenthood services to support and promote the family.
Parents invest a lot to offer their children the best chances for their development. They are entitled to an appropriate compensation of the costs involved and an adequate recognition of their efforts. All social domains are requested to guarantee a well-balanced combination of financial means, time and services for all families (child care facilities, assistance for the elderly...).
Parents have the right to choose by themselves between gainful employment and family work. The renunciation of gainful employment for the benefit of family work must be compensated by equivalent transfer payments. Moreover general conditions of the working environment must be adapted to be compatible with family life.
Parents and children live within an inter-generational community of reciprocal responsibility. It is indispensable to enhance the practised solidarity of generations with the solidarity of society as a whole in the form of adequate social security systems.

Although family policy primarily falls within the competence of member states European Regulations influence its’ shaping in many ways. The compatibility between family policy and all EU regulations must therefore be examined. Likewise the member states themselves have to assume responsibility for the implementation of a family-friendly policy.
In order to reach these aims it is of utmost importance that the role and the expertise of the associations working on the field are recognized by the governments of the members states in the European Union.