Cracovia. One of us

After collecting nearly two million signatures in support of “One of us”, the coordinators of the initiative in the 28 European countries, gathered in Krakow (Poland) last weekend, have agreed the implementation of a European federation to defend life before the EU institutions.

“One of us” was the first European Citizens’ Initiative that to raise a concrete proposal for legislative reform to the European institutions, backed by nearly two million citizens of the Union. The signatures were collected in the 28 EU Member States with a significant number of signatures collected in 20 of these states, representing 77 % of the European population, according to the minimum required by the European legislation.

Encouraged by this success, the coordinators of the Initiative met in Krakow to celebrate the First European “One of Us” Conference. As part of this event, they largely agreed to instruct the Executive Committee of the Initiative the development of a proposed charter to serve as a starting point for the launching of a European Federation that can embrace all the organizations working in the defence of human life in the European Union.

Moreover, the Conference has also worked on the preparation of the public hearing which must necessarily be organised by the European Commission after the deadline for signature verification by national administrations, which it is likely to happen by the end of next February 2014.

The organizers of the Initiative have benefited from the advice of experts from different European countries for the preparation of this hearing, like Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Italy, Spain and Romania. These experts have provided further information on the handling of the Initiative from legal and scientific perspectives.

“One of Us” is a people’s legislative initiative launched by a group of citizens of European Union countries to ask the Community institutions to guarantee the protection of human beings since conception. This initiative brings together almost all of the pro-life and pro-family entities in Europe.