Report on the Protection of Children and Families adopted in the Council of Europe!!

On the 28^th of June, the report of ECPM MP and Board Member Valeriu Ghilețchi on "Striking a balance between the best interest of the child and the need to keep families together” has been adopted. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this initiative was triggered by the Bodnariu case in Norway. The report has been adopted with an enormous majority of 43 against 2 with 14 abstentions. It was very encouraging to see that during the debate, many MPs expressed their concerns about the Norwegian Child Care system agreeing that the separation of children must be only a last resort and a temporary solution. It was also impressive to note that this was also recognized by an important Norwegian MP. Although a few amendments were adopted, it did not cause very much harm to the report. ECPM also published a detailed article on the adoption of this report.

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Corruption Scandal on the Sale of Schengen Visas in Malta discussed in the European Parliament

Ivan Grech Mintoff (leader of the ECPM-Member Party Alleanza Bidla) presented in the Maltese court a transcript of the testimonies of several Libyans who claimed that in 2015, they bought an unknown number of humanitarian medical visas from an official in the Office of the of the Maltese Prime Minister. These medical visas are not supposed to be sold. Following an agreement between Malta and Libya, they are issued for free. The documents submitted in the court also claim that Schengen visas were illicitly sold at the Maltese Consulate in Tripoli over a period of 14 months (in 2013 and 2014). In this period, 88000 Schengen Visas (300 visas per day including Saturdays and Sundays) have been sold. This illegal scheme could have earned the perpetrators millions of euros. Although the Consulate in Tripoli has closed, it is unclear if this practice has stopped or is still continuing via other countries or Malta up to today. On the 27th of June, ECPM invited Mr Mintoff to the E...

Christmas Greeting

Biases Attack Pro-Life and Pro-Family Organizations

The debate on abortion was stirred up again after the recent leak of the draft proposal of the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Mainly negative reactions to this news circulated in the media. The debate on abortion has become increasingly subjective where, particularly, the pro-life arguments are marginalized and negatively framed. Last February, we saw this in the European Parliament as well where the FEMM committee (Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament) held a public hearing on the ‘Countering the anti-gender movement today to secure a gender equal Europe tomorrow’ , a side event of the Future of Europe Conference. As the title of the hearing suggests, this event was a one-sided story on the topic, seeking to invalidate other opinions and attacking several Christian organizations on their pro-life advocacy and promotion of Christian values. The hearing displayed the immaturity of the debate on abortion and gender issues. There is n...

Leo van Doesburg

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