On April 10th the European Parliament will organize a public hearing for the ECI “One of Us”. Organizers will present a legal proposition, which will hopefully become an European law.
This initiative is not one among many initiatives. With up to 1.7 milion validated statements of support, this initiative is the most successful of all European Citizens’ Initiatives that have been registered so far.
It has reached the minimum number of signatures in 19 of 28 Member States, which shows that the support for this initiative is widely shared across Europe, and not only in a few countries.
This initiative therefore places the dignity of the human person as from the moment of conception on the very top of European citizens’ concerns. There is no other issue that has triggered any similar mobilization throughout the EU.
With the public hearing, the ECI organizers are expecting that the European institutions will not ignore the clear voice of European citizens and let European Parliament decide whether it should become a law. Failing to do so, would be a clear message – especially before the European elections – that EU is not interested in becoming more democratic and a tool which was created to listen the European Citizens concerns and request is a delusion.
Having said that, organizers are very optimistic and hopeful: with so great support from so many countries and a very simple legal request, we are expecting that the European Parliament will carefully listen to the arguments.
