European Parliament Members at the Test Bench
The catholic family associations have prepared a questionnaire for examining the EU-Parliament candidates as to their family friendliness.
Vienna,
May 10, 2004: The Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe
(FAFCE) is testing the candidates within its member countries who run
for the EU-elections, and namely as to their approach to families. In
using this questionnaire, the future EU-Parliament members are invited
to express their opinion to seven topical issues that are essential for
the families. "The aim of a family-friendly and future oriented European
policy should be the definition of certain minimum standards common for
all EU-countries", says Johannes Fenz, President of the Federation
of Catholic Family Associations in Europe.
FAFCE uses issues such as the policy of employment and the social policy, economic and immigration policies, as well as approach to media, to bioethics, to development policies and legal co-operation of the member countries, for verifying whether the candidates running for the EU-election support family-friendly policies. These EU-questionnaire prepared by FAFCE were introduced within the CIVITAS, a trade fair for NGOs that was held in Padua on May 2 and 3.
After the starting shot in Padua the eleven member organisations of FAFCE began this opinion poll by questioning of the candidates. The results of the questionnaire will be published on the home pages of FAFCE two weeks prior to the elections to the European Parliament.
"We
should not fall in the trap of taking it for granted," says the FAFCE-President
Johannes Fenz, "that the families can meet their societal tasks continuously,
in spite of the frame conditions getting increasingly difficult. In order
to ensure a reasonable room for family activities, the politicians should
apply their best efforts for guaranteeing appropriate framework conditions."
Fenz can imagine certain common minimum standards of all EU member states,
for instance by defining an agreed percentage of GDP direct allotments
for family contributions as well as the right to part time jobs.
President Fenz encourages the families to take the vote on June 13. "On this day the families in 25 countries in Europe have the option to vote for the candidates who can best represent their important issues in Brussels."
Questionnaire (pdf-document) >>