European People's Party set to defend "human life at all stages"

Commitments to protect human life "at all stages" and to stand up for the right of parents to decide for themselves whether or not to work in the home form a central part of European People’s Party’s election manifesto for next month’s European elections.

Last month, the party, which represents Europe's Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, looked set to weaken its commitment to the right to life and the family based on marriage, in comparison to its manifesto for the last Euro elections in 2004.

The earlier version of the manifesto removed any reference to the family based on marriage, and removed references to protecting human life.

However the final version of the manifesto reinstates those commitments.

The EPP, of which Fine Gael is the Irish representative, debated its election manifesto last month.

Discussions about the document culminated in an EPP meeting in Warsaw at the end of April, in which the final version of the manifesto was agreed.

The new document has dropped references to ‘family diversity’, which family campaigners complained weakened the party's commitment to the family based on marriage. And while it insists that tolerance for difference is a key value within the EU, it insists that Europe must also be “intolerant of intolerance of our own value system and beliefs”.

The manifesto refers to a 2001 EPP document called A Union of Values, which very clearly states the party's uncompromising support for human life. This includes opposition to abortion, euthanasia and destructive research on embryos.

In addition, it contains the statement that “families where fathers and mothers take responsibility for their children are the foundation of society.”

The manifesto also favours empowering parents to decide whether to raise their children at home or to put them in child-care.