Leo van Doesburg

More than 550 participants joined the "international forum on Cooperation of politicans and civil society to protect Christian values”   Last week, After the 5th Ukrainian Prayer Brea k fast , around 550 p oliticians, repres entatives of NGOs, and churches gathered toget her around the international forum on the "Cooperation of Politicians and Civil Society in the Promotion of Christian Values on the International Arena". The forum was organised by ECPM and the faction al Parliamentary Group "for s pirituality, morality and health for the Ukraine" . Distinguished speakers and experts from all over the world, as well as local contributors discussed on the issue of the Promotion of Christian Values and the ways the collaboration between decision makers, academics and civil society can become more effective. On the final day of the conference, participants signed the "Declaration on the Establishment of a "European Christian Coalition"....

On the 26 th of April, I had the privilege to meet in the European Parliament in Brussels, students from the European University of Rome. The European University of Rome is a private, legally recognized, Catholic University which is part of a big network of universities widespread in many countries throughout the world. The University’s mission is to form in its students independent personalities that will be driven by Christian principles. 

The European Parliament; the European Commission; Brussels... What kind of thoughts cross Christians’ minds when they hear these words? Bureaucracy and costly? Unnecessary legislation that goes against freedom of religion, belief and conscience? Sometimes I wonder what has happened in Brussels over the last few decades. What has become of the Christian mindset that was so instrumental in the formation of the European Project? Where is the real problem? Maybe the problem is not with the European Union. Maybe the problem lies with the successors of the founding fathers of the EU. And how will Christian politicians be able to make their faith more visible in European politics?

Next week, the European Elections will take place. Over 413 million citizens of 28 EU-member states have the opportunities to elect 751 Members of the European Parliament.  Each member state has its own electoral laws and each one decides on what day its citizens will go to the polls during the four-day election person from 22 to 25 May 2014. The results will be announced on the evening of Sunday 25 May. But the interesting question is: who should we vote for? I got many questions like: I do not know which party or candidate in our country supports Christian values in Europe, I would like to know how my MEP who is running again voted on key issues like the protection of life, priority for the family (based on a union between a man and a woman) and freedom of religion or belief. Some interesting tools had been developed to give you some insight in these questions:  First of all, all the candidates of the ECPM supports these basic values as they are also mentio...

WHY THE LEFT-LIBERAL PUSH IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AGAINST CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT BOOST DEMOCRACY  Following the recent protests that took place in Hungary, the social-liberal opposition in Romania also pushed people in the street today using spontaneous demonstrations that have been held earlier days this week. This comes as a second attempt to the one that unfolded last year, when buses with demonstrators were brought to the Constitutional Square to demonstrate when the Romanian Parliament was discussing the third motion of no confidence. By coincidence, it happened that I had meetings in the Romanian Parliament that same day. The Romanian Military Police did not want to let me in, because some of the demonstrators in the parliament balcony had thrown something down. The Military Police got an order not to let any stranger in the parliament. Eventually I fortunately succeeded and after the meeting I went to the balcony to see the parliamentary debate abou...

In the Council of Europe, during its next session on 23rd January 2012, the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) will elect the Commissioner for Human Rights . It is important that this position will be occupied by someone who shares our values. Therefore I support and recommend Pierre Yves Monette. He shares our values and we would like to motivate you to contact your Members of Parliament who are also member of the PACE to ask them to vote in favour of Pierre Yves Monette. Here is the list of your National representatives in the PACE Pierre Yves Monette   i s also supported by  the EPP  group in the  EU: The EPP President, Wilfried Martens , made public at the Marseille meeting last December that Pierre Yves Monette should be supported. Also Joseph Daul   (EPP Chair in the European parliament) supports Mr Monette and recommended him to his colleague s in the PACE . Please find here the link to the website of M...

It was early morning on 21 September 2011. The hills of Dnipro stand as a symbol of the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine, while offering a beautiful view of the city of Kiev. Although the sun has already risen, the city is still covered in fog that is slowly disappearing: it looks like Kiev is waking up. An historic event is taking place: the first Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast and a forum of Christian politicians on “Christian values in a globalized world” are organized today. Are the hills and the waking up of the city not the best symbols you can give to these events? Will there be a waking up of politicians, representatives of religious institutions and churches, NGOs and institutions for a stronger collaboration in order to promote Christian values in the Ukraine? These were questions that occupied my mind when I stood on the hill, watching the city. The fog was soon disappearing.

After I visited Russia , I visited the republic Kyrgyzstan. Many probably remember the country from the bloody conflict with the Uzbecs shortly after a sort of revolution made an end of a dictatorial regime. I was asked to give a training about the basics of Christian Democracy to the leadership of a new party called "7 April" (referring to their revolution last year) and to an informal group with Christian representatives of NGOs and journalists .

After a bit longer sleep than the days before I had an interesting discussion with two representatives working in the parliament. We discussed about the ways for collaboration. It was a long but constructive and friendly discussion. Many opinions about the current political situation were shared. It will be an interesting time because both Putin and Medvedev will probably candidate for the next year's presidential elections. They suggeste d to organize a conference in the Russian Parliament, an interparliamentarian conference to discuss human dignity within the Russian context. If there is central approval, they would like to organise this in collaboration with the ECPM. In the afternoon I had a meeting with the majority of members of the newly formed movement. First they discussed the working name of the movement. This discussion was led by Ekaterina. The working name became "Christian Civic Movement". After this I explained shortly the already famous "hour glass mo...

The conference would start today later in the afternoon. Therefore I had time to go with Henkjan van Schothorst (Roel Kuiper left home already) to visit the Red Square. It remains a powerful square with the red building of the historical museum and the St Basil cathedral. We visited the cathedral and saw the nice interior and a few of the Red Square. While Henkjan went back to the hotel to pick up some things, I visited the church service in the cathedral. After that I went to the conference. The first greeting was from the vice president of the 'Center for Slavic Culture and Literature' where the three days' event was hosted. This was followed by a Christian entrepreneur who explained that though there were many pressures, he tried to remain integer. He called the business people up not to be involved in corruption but to form a kind of Christian business club (he called it a parallel economy) where businesses were committed together to remain clean. His speech was follow...

The next day, after we picked up Roel Kuiper from the hotel, we went to the place where the conference will start: the Orthodox center for Slavic languages. After the openings prayer of Father Nicholas, advisor for external affairs and the opening of Ekaterina, I was asked to give the opening lecture. The subject I chose was human dignity as base for the Christian Social thinking. I told about different views on dignity in history and talked about the catholic and Protestant view on Human Dignity and the universal declaration on human dignity recognizing that we are created in the image and likeness of God from the conception till the natural death as base for legal charters and legislation (even as base for the universal declaration for human rights) and motivate the participants to promote the principles also in Russia. Although I thought that the lecture I gave might be long and somehow heavy in the morning, the reactions were enormous encouraging. Father Nicholai said that he was v...

After years of economic growth and welfare, revolutionary changes in means of communication , we are confronted with the global financial crisis . While governments and the European Union are trying to their best to save the economies by transferring large sums of money to emergency funds , the production is decreasing, the unemployment is rising, the salaries and governmental subventions are decreasing and the poverty in Europe is increasing significantly. With this article, Leo van Doesburg is looking if human dignity as a base for Christian Social and Christian Democratic teachings could give an answer to the nowadays challenges and how the basic values of human dignity can be reintroduced as an answer on the nowadays challenges. Read more on: CPPortal.org

From 8-10 December, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the Ecumenical Prayer Group of the Romanian Parliament will organize the 5th Romanian Prayer Breakfast. This event will be organized in collaboration with the ECPM, the Bible Society, and the Dutch Reformed Party. The theme will be: "Christian values in politics" and will take place in the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest. Program is as follows: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 18.00 - 19.00 Arrival of the participants 19.00 - 23.00 Cocktail offered by Mrs. Roberta Alma ANASTASE, President of the Chamber of Deputies, in honor of the participants Cultural - Religious Program. Thursday, 9 December 2010 08.00 - 08.30 Arrival of the participants 08.30 - 10.00 Romanian Prayer Breakfast 10.00 - 11.00 Tour in the Palace of Parliament 11.00 - 13.00 Opening debate. „Christian Values in Politics” 13.00 - 14.30 Lunch. 15.00 - 18.00 Resumption of debate. Conclusions. 18.00 - 19.00 Cultural program. 19.30 - 21.00 Dinner. Friday, 10 De...

I was surprised to learn about the strong pressure on the Macedonian government following the adoption of the new anti-discrimination law that does not mention sexual orientation. It is interesting that these emotional discussions mainly base themselves on vague terms like “European values” and “European standards”. Even the European Commission reminded Macedonia that its anti-discrimination legislation should be in line with the “Charter of Fundamental Rights”, part of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. What was interesting was that the Charter was only used for Article 21 (where “Sexual orientation” is protected). The consequences for other rights like “the freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 10 of the Charter) or for the “Freedom of Expression and information” (Art. 11 of the Charter) were mainly forgotten in these discussions. Furthermore I found it strange that the pressure did not start from Macedonian society, but mainly from abroad: from ambassadors, certain European Parliam...