RIMINI, Italy, SEPT. 14, 2011 (Zenit.org).- One of the presenters at the Rimini meeting announced that European pro-life groups will be availing of the European Citizens’ Initiative, an innovation of the Treaty of Lisbon enabling citizens to call on the European Commission for legal decisions.
The European Citizens’ Initiative is set to come into force in April 2012.
Carlo Casini, president of the Constitutional Affairs Commission of the European Parliament, called for using this initiative when he spoke at the Rimini meeting in August. The ECI would request juridical recognition of conception as the beginning of the right to life being added to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Casini explained that ECIs are “much more binding than the Italian petitions: In fact, the Commission is obliged to give an answer to those making the proposal and the latter will have the occasion to explain adequately their reasoning to the Institutions.”
The Italian European Parliament Member noted that “a great mobilization of consciences is necessary to overcome resignation and acceptance in face of aggressions against life.”
The ECI initiative is an attempt “to bring to its goal and perfection a historical movement that, in the name of equality and human dignity, has freed slaves, promoted people of color, demanded equality of opportunity for women and proclaimed human rights,” Casini said.
It is an attempt, he added, “to offer Europe the energy of a real civil and moral renewal.”
