Family policy institute to promote family issues in Europe and Latin America

Madrid, Spain, Feb 6, 2007 / 10:30 am

The Institute for Family Policy in Spain announced this week that in addition to promoting a series of measures in support of the family in Europe among various European administrations and international organizations, it would also organize the First Report on the Evolution of the Family in Latin America.

The pro-family organization, which last week issued a revealing report on the state of the family in Spain during 2006, said it would also lend its support to the European Alliance of Families currently being proposed by the German Minister for Family Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen.  The group also called for the creation of a European Observatory of the Family that would analyze the situation and evolution of the family in Europe, “by advising, controlling and supervising the political measures that affect it, thus assuring that public policies are developed with a family perspective.”

Likewise the institute announced it would request that various European governments draft a so-called “green book” on the family that would “analyze the problems facing the family, their causes and consequences, and would propose solutions and alternatives to such problems.”  According to the President of the European Network of the Institute for Family Policy, Lola Velarde, “of the 95 green books written since 1984, none has been devoted to the family.”

Green books are drafted by a special EU commission and are consulted during the drafting of policy proposals.

According to Velarde, “ The family needs to become a political priority in Europe by incorporating the ‘perspective of the family’ in all actions, policies and programs of the European Union, promoting uniformity in national family policies, avoiding discrimination between countries and supporting equality of opportunity between European families.”