Approaching the click-day

The citizens’ initiative “One of Us” runs the final sprint at the European Parliament. At the end of the plenary session of July 1-4 the promoting Committee, led by MEP Carlo Casini, took stock on the signature collection supporting the request of EU legislation banning the financing of research or international cooperation initiatives which pose a risk to human life, and that presuppose experiments on human embryos or actions for selective family planning. Citizens are the protagonists. Almost 700 thousand signatures of endorsement have been collected to date (on paper or online, by logging on www.oneofus.eu). The deadline for the submission of the signatures to the EU Commission is set at November 1st- “A set of meetings are scheduled in the coming months that will hopefully increase the total number of endorsements”, the promoters said in Strasbourg. The signature collection continues within the framework of a series of events, notably, in October, the World Pilgrimage of the Families in Rome. But the new proposal that emerged July 2 regarded the click-day, set for September 22. “On that day – said the Italian spokesperson, Maria Grazia Colombo – we will ask associations and movements to undertake an extraordinary mobilization to sign the online petition One of Us”. A significant increase in the number of signatures is thus expected to exceed the required threshold of one million signatures. The minimum number of signatures per Country should be equal to the number of national MEPs multiplied by 700. To date these figures have been collected in Austria, Spain, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Hungary. France and Lithuania are nearing the quorum. “Behind each signature there is a person who wants to reiterate his/her yes to life, in particular the recognition of the human dignity of the embryo”, Colombo added. “As associations, movements and committed lay people we call for the beauty of life, the reaffirmation of the human person marked by human relations and recognized in humanity”. Universal right. “The value of life extends beyond” the “sphere of religion”. “It’s a secular issue that is related to reason”. Carlo Casini, MEPs, supports the pro-life citizens’ initiative, of which he is the European coordinator. “After the Iron Curtain, we must tear down the wall separating our vision of life, representing a universal right” underlying “other universal rights”. “The initiative was born at grassroots level – added the president of the Constitutional Affairs of the EU Parliament – from citizens and peoples. But now it requires the explicit support of MEPs. Those who believe in Europe should give their support to this citizens’ initiative”. Jaime Mayor Oreja, Spanish MEP, pointed out: “The initiative One of Us is promoted by citizens, as enshrined within the Lisbon Treaty. Thus its special relevance is linked to its purpose, which is the defense of life in Community policies, and to the fact that it represents a cultural and social process with a European bearing”. Europe community of values. “Today we need to reawaken our idle consciences”. Salvatore Martinez, president of Renewal in the Spirit, spoke at the EU Parliament on the question of “the crisis that is afflicting European populations, an anthropological crisis in nature”. The need to “reaffirm the intangible feature of life, in its many forms, that can never be subjected to manipulation” or “denial”, testifies to this situation, he told SIR Europe. “To deny life is to deny the future”, he pointed out. The initiative One of Us, according to Martinez, reminds us that life and human dignity “come first”. “If politics will take life by the hand, politics will benefit from it”. Carlo Costalli, president of Christian Workers’ Movement (MCL), underlined the movement’s lay form of support in favor of One of Us. “Our presence here, advocating the initiative One of Us, provides us with the opportunity to launch an appeal to all associations and lay and social movements, calling for their mobilization in favour of the reaffirmation of a vision of Europe as a community of values”. Costalli added: “One of Us raises crucial themes for our future, for the future of Europe and for EU Member Countries. These issues should be on the agenda of the electoral campaign that will be undertaken in view of the European Parliament elections in the coming year”.