Stop redefining parenthood by EU. International coalition of pro-family organisations

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The European Commission intends to implement a regulation demanding from Member States to acknowledge foreign adoptions of children by single-sex partnerships. However, the EU is not competent to interfere in family law. For this reason, an international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appealed to the European Commission to withdraw from these plans. You can sign an on-line petition to this end.

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“The President of the European Commission believes that parenthood acknowledged in one country must also be acknowledged in others, even in the case of single-sex couples. The regulation will interfere in the family law of Member States, which is unacceptable in light of EU Treaties. The Treaties emphasise that such matters as marriage and parenthood are the sole competence of Member States”, points out Att. Katarzyna Gęsiak, Deputy Director of the Ordo Iuris Centre of the International Law.

The adoption of such changes in the form of a regulation would require all EU countries to implement them, including the ones whose legislation provides otherwise. This is to be achieved by introducing common compatibility rules for conflicting provisions of national family law, and by obliging Member States to recognise judgements in parenting cases issued by courts from other states. In this way, the EU would (completely outside its competence) interfere in the substantive family law of individual states.

The proposed regulation also involves the so-called optional European certificate of parenthood. It would be an alternative formal certificate of birth. As intended by the Commission, it would most probably apply in countries such as Poland, which do not accept the EU attempts at interfering in internal law.

A group of a dozen European countries have voiced their protest against the European Commission plans. A petition to this end was presented at a conference held by the Ordo Iuris Institute. The initiative is supported by pro-family communities, e.g. from France, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.