“My Voice, My Choice!” »» It should be the watchword of all European citizens. Our voices count. Our choices count. Our votes must be respected. It is therefore particularly rude to have named a European citizen initiative which directly attacks the votes, choices and expressed votes of Europeans. The Commission cannot access this request without seriously attacking the freedoms of the citizens of the EU countries.
In May 2008, they voted the Lisbon Treaty which defined the respective skills of the European Union and the Member States. Its article 5 recalls the principle of allocating the skills according to which the action of the EU is strictly limited to the areas for which the Member States have given it skills. Abortion is not a competence of the EU and remains of the exclusive jurisdiction of the Member States, as the European Commissioner for Equality recalled in March 2025, Hadja Lahbib.
The poorly named initiative, however, asks the commission of ” do everything in its power to ensure a sure abortion and accessible to all ». His spokesperson announced that his final objective was to introduce a right to abortion in the EU. By registering an initiative that encourages him to ” do everything in its power To go beyond its powers, the Commission was clearly unfair towards its Member States. We do not play with the fundamental principles of European law without creating a precedent heavy with consequences.
A skillful trick
But disloyalty lies mainly in the subterfuge proposed to the Commission: to establish a mechanism allowing citizens to bypass their national legislation by going to obtain in another country what is illegal in theirs, and to financially support this ” Solidarity effort ». The cunning is skillful and skillfully presented: without a concrete proposal for a financing mechanism, the Commission was able to record this initiative without relying it for illegality. The stratagem mainly borders on Tartufferie.
“” The scandal of the world is what makes the offense and it is not sin that sinful in silence Said Tartuffe. “” Notre initiative is not intended to harmonize or interfere with the laws and regulations of the Member States but is rather of the EU support competence Add the signatories to this initiative.
Support what, and who? European citizens who wish to derogate from the laws established legitimately by their respective national representations? How could it be something other than interference with the legislation of the Member States? It would be unacceptable to see the European Union go around, undermine and thus thwart national political choices. The Commission cannot head on the legitimate choices of each member state in the sensitive field of the protection of human life to be born.
The EU should end European financing of activities that involve the destruction of human embryos
If abortion belongs to the exclusive field of Member States, the legal protection of dignity, the right to life and the integrity of any human being since conception, on the contrary, has entered the fields of EU. The embryo is the beginning of the development process of a human being, as established by the CJEU in the Brüstle judgment against Greenpeace. In order to be consistent in the exercise of its skills, the EU should end European financing of activities which involve the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the fields of research, development aid and public health.
It was the request of 1.7 million European citizens gathered in 2014 by the Citizen One of Us initiative. This remains unrivaled, for a budget five times less than the “My Voice My Choice” initiative. The commission had not followed up … at a time when a diametrically opposite and manifestly illegal initiative is presented to her, it would be good for her to remember this request – and the choices made by all European citizens to define her skills.
*The European Federation One of Us brings together 50 NGOs from 19 European countries. Each of them brings concrete aid to men and women in the field of paternity, maternity, parenthood and family life. His raison d’être is to defend human life and dignity to European institutions.
Signatories of the Tribune:
1. Cornelia Kaminski (Germany)
2. Alexandra Maria Linder (Germany)
3. Wouter J. Suenens (Belgium)
4. Diliana Nikolova (Bulgaria)
5. Ante čaljkušić (Croatia)
6. Kristoffer Dahl (Denmark)
7. Jaime Mayor Oreja (Spain)
8. Ana del Pino (Spain)
9. Sr. Agustín Buades Rullán (Spain)
10. Miguel Gómez de Agüero (Spain)
11. Prof. Nicojás Jouve de la Barreda (Spain)
12. Pr Julio Tudela (Spain)
13. Pr José Castro Velarde (Spain)
14. Pr Alicia Latorre (Spain)
15. María Torrego Barona (Spain)
16. Álvaro Ortega (Spain)
17. Dª Eva María Martín García (Spain)
18. Pr. Dr. José Antonio Díez Fernández (Spain)
19. María Menéndez de Zubillaga (Spain)
20. Susana Macías (Spain)
21. Javier Puente Redondo (Spain)
22. Pablo Siegrist (Spain)
23. Josep Miró (Spain)
24. Pr Gregor Puppinck (France)
25. Jean-Marie Le Méné (France)
26. Nicolas Tardy-Joubert (France)
27. Franck Meyer (France)
28. Anne Honoré (France)
29. Pr Massimo Gandolfini (Italy)
30. Pr Giovanna Abbagnara (Italy)
31. Pr Marina Casini (Italy)
32. Pr Aldo Bova (Italy)
33. André Grosbusch (Luxembourg)
34. Pr Tonio Borg (Malta)
35. Antonio Fenech (Malta)
36. Dr Miriam Sciberra (Malta)
37. Tista Bobbink (Netherlands)
38. Arthur Alderliesten (Netherlands)
39. Kees Van Helden (Netherlands)
40. Leontine Bakermans (Netherlands)
41. Elisa Garcia (Netherlands)
42. Jakub Baltroszewicz (Poland)
43. Tomasz Kancelarczyk (Poland)
44. Krzysztof Zuba (Poland)
45. Isilda Pegado (Portugal)
46. José Maria Dias Miranda (Portugal)
47. João Perry da Câmara (Portugal)
48. José Alexandre Oliveira (Portugal)
49. Marcela Dobešová (Slovakia)
50. Andrej Mikolášik (Slovakia)
51. Anna Kováčová (Slovakia)
52. Alojz Peterle (Slovenia)
53. Darja pečnik (Slovenia)
54. Josef Jelinek (Czech Republic)
