Is this aid?” “

The tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994 under the aegis of the UNO, has prompted the European Parliament (EP) to review the action programme approved on that occasion in terms of “balanced and sustainable” demographic development. In the plenary assembly held in Strasbourg last week, MEPs thus debated, and then approved by 287 votes in favour, 196 against and 13 abstentions, the Report on “Population and Development” that asks for sex education programmes, and the provision of contraceptives and safe abortion for the developing countries. The Assembly further insists that the EU and member states better coordinate their efforts and make more funds available “for programmes in the sector of sexual and reproductive health, so as to fulfil the international obligations” assumed in Cairo. In this regard we are publishing on the following page a reflection by the moral theologian Father Marco Doldi . A VOTE WITH A CLEAR POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE. The document (which has no immediate legal force, nor does it open a legislative process, but contains significant political guidelines) first of all requests the EU and the governments of the developing countries to undertake extensive information and awareness-raising campaigns with a view to “providing children and young people with sex information and education” and “combating sexual exploitation and repression”. At the same time, the Report emphasises “the fact that each person is worthy of respect, irrespective of his/her sexual orientation”. Particularly debated in the chamber was the passage that asks for the provision of “sufficient and inexpensive quantities of contraceptives” and, in particular, condoms in the third world. This is followed by the invitation to distribute “at affordable prices sufficient quantities of medicines for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases”, with immediate reference to Hiv/Aids. AbortION INDICATED AS A “LESSER EVIL”. Even more controversial is the passage that insists on the need to permit “safe interruptions of pregnancy from the medical viewpoint”. In this regard the EP stressed that although “the interruption of pregnancy cannot be considered a method of birth control”, “women who see no other way out of the situation of grave difficulty in which they find themselves must have the possibility of protecting their reproductive and psychological health by having recourse to an intervention – i.e. an abortion – immune from sanctions and safe from the medical viewpoint”. According to the report, this would permit a sharp reduction of maternal mortality in the poorer countries less equipped with health services. Also approved by the EP was an amendment that invites member states “to abstain from taking judicial proceedings against women who have illegally aborted”. The assembly lastly tackled the problem of precocious and “forced” marriages, the cause of grave psychological, physical and social problems in various nations. The EP expressed the hope, in this sense, that women would have greater access to education and be able to enjoy greater economic independence. FREE CIRCULATION: THE RIGHTS OF UNMARRIED COUPLES. Also at its recent session in Strasbourg, the EP gave the go-ahead to a Directive on the free circulation of citizens of the Union and their families. The Directive clarifies the issue and permits EU citizens to circulate freely with their own family and their spouse, even if a citizen of a third country. The bureaucratic procedures are simplified, and the permanent right of residence after five years regular residence in a member state is recognized. This right is extended to unmarried couples, provided they are “stable” and “registered”; in this case, however, the legislation of the host country is considered valid. The situation of unmarried couples in Europe is thus variegated, depending on country: in the Netherlands and Belgium, for example, the civil union between homosexuals is permitted; in Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Finland so-called registered union (unmarried partners living permanently together) is only permitted to same sex couples, so in these countries heterosexual couples could enjoy the rights upheld by the Directive only if married. Different again is the situation in Germany, France and Portugal where the condition of “registered cohabitation” exists: it is expected that the European Court of Justice will be called to intervene on these cases. The Directive, which recognises and renders more accessible the right to circulation within the EU, was defined at Strasbourg as an “imperfect compromise”, but also a “milestone in the construction of European citizenship”.