If we take as a reference the proposals presented to the European Parliament, EU citizens want neither the fundamental right to abortion nor the European certificate of membership.
Newsroom (27/01/2025 15:50, Gaudium Press) There is a service offered by the European Parliament called the Citizens’ Enquiries Unit, also known as Ask EP, which responds to letters, emails and other queries from the public about the Parliament’s activities, positions and general issues in the European Union.
In 2024, Ask EP received 10,578 individual queries – such as questions about personal concerns, internship and job opportunities and the possibilities of visiting Parliament – and 90,709 queries relating to coordinated campaigns.
During the largest Ask EP campaign ever recorded, more than 59,000 citizens asked MEPs in 2024 to vote against including the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
In April 2024, Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Council to initiate a process to include the right to safe and legal abortion in the Charter. The proposal to include the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron. France included the fundamental right to abortion in its constitution in March 2024.
At the beginning of 2024, almost 16,000 messages were also received in Germany, in which citizens expressed their concerns about a proposal by the European Commission to recognize parentage throughout the EU, regardless of how a child was conceived, born or what type of family they have. Citizens called on Members of Parliament to vote against the proposal, as it would interfere with the legislative powers of EU countries.
The proposal envisages the creation of a European certificate of parentage, meaning that parentage established by one EU country should be automatically recognized in all other member states. In this way, all EU countries would be obliged to adapt to the country with the most progressive law on filiation. A country that bans surrogacy would also have to recognize the paternity of people who have used surrogacy in another EU country and who have been recognized there as the parents of the child thus created. The same applies to the adoption of children by same-sex couples.
In 2024, the request by almost 6,000 EU citizens for the EU to set a strict climate target for 2040 in order to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5°C and phase out fossil fuels came in third.
Both the amendment of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the introduction of EU-wide recognition of membership require the consent of all member states, and this is currently unlikely.
What do Europeans think?
According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, the EU had 452.9 million citizens in 2024. Of the 59,000 citizens, 0.01% voted against the fundamental right to abortion enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which could be considered an insignificant number. However, to assess the importance of these figures, three elements need to be taken into account: according to the rule of thumb used by politicians to assess the weight of citizens’ letters, each individual letter represents 1,000 more people. This means that the proportion of citizens who reject the right to abortion is already ten percent. In addition, we should consider that EU citizens are probably not familiar with the possibility of contacting the European Parliament directly. Thirdly, despite the small number of 59,000 citizens, it is necessary to compare this with the number of notifications on other issues. The issue of abortion stands out.
With information from belgicatho
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
Related Images:
