One of us, end of preliminary phase

Almost 180 thousand signatures in support of One of Us, collected across Europe: 103thousand online and 77 thousand on paper questionnaires. The figures were released in the first Assembly of national coordinators of the Citizens’ Initiative, hosted by the EU Parliament March 19-20. The purpose is to reach one million signatures by November, in order to submit to the Commission a proposal for a legislative initiative in defence of human embryos. The new phase of One of Us was presented within the framework of the "Week of Life" that brought together in Brussels’ politicians, scholars from various academic and research centres in Europe, representatives of associations and the coordinators of the signature collection for the European citizens’ initiative.Debates on a European scale. The third "Week for Life" prompted an in-depth debate on themes related to bioethics and to the protection of human life, taking stock of the latest developments in the area of research, with a focus on the next framework programme for research at EU level for the period 2014-2020 (Horizon 2020). Participants drew a balance of the degree of attention devoted to human life by scientific, cultural, media and political environments. Many MEPs took the floor (Gay Mitchell, Anna Zaborska, Jaime Mayor Oreja, Nirj Deva, Miroslav Mikolášik, Konrad Szymański, Maria Patrão Neves, Bastiaan Belder, Johanna Skrzydlewska, Ewald Stadler). Among the guest speakers figured William Reville (University College Cork, Ireland), Violeta Radosav (Family Planning department, Timisoara, Romania), David Albert Jones (Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom), Mariusz Ratajczak (Stem Cell Institute, University of Louisville, United States), Roger Kiska (Defending Freedom Alliance, Vienna), Frigide Barjot ("Manif pour tous", France), Monica López Baraona (Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Spain), Pino Noia (Università Cattolica, Rome, Italia), Gregor Puppinck (European Centre for Law and Justice, Strasbourg, France).Cultural mobilization. "Debates held in European seats must focus on themes related to human life, in order to promote a constructive debate and convey citizens’ voices to political representatives, so they may fully understand people’s expectations". Father Patrick Daly, newly-elected General Secretary of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, (COMECE), attending the meeting, explained to SIR Europe the opportunity provided by the "Week for life". "Legislative competence on questions such as the defence of life and voluntary pregnancy interruption fall within national responsibilities. However, a community-wide debate is needed" given the urgency of the matter. What do you consider to be the most delicate issues addressed during the Week for Life? "The lectures and the ensuing debates showed that stem cell research is a very delicate issue", underlined Father Daly. "It is an area marked by different stands and ambiguities… Clearly, in the background there is the risk that human life may be violated and exploited for other purposes. Also for this reason it is crucial to promote occasions for debate between Christians", in order to "raise public awareness, with the involvement of national and European policy-makers". Stepping up commitments at local level. Italian MEP Carlo Casini is considered one of the "fathers" of "One of Us" initiative. "It’s a ground-breaking initiative – he said during the Week for life -. In fact, the progress of civilization has always been determined by the concept of human dignity. In the past we fought to obtain the respect of fundamental rights, for dignity and equal opportunities for women, and long before for the freedom of coloured citizens … Today the great challenge is the protection of the human embryo. With One of US we are progressing in that direction". Casini underlined: "it is not a question of ‘religion’. It’s a rational principle that is valid for everyone. We wish to bring about a ban on community funding for researches entailing the destruction of the embryo, i.e. the destruction of human life". As relates to the Assembly of National Coordinators of the Initiative he said: "The preliminary phase of One of Us ends here. Some Countries are already actively engaged, such as Poland, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Germany… Now it’s important to promote awareness campaigns and signature-collections, with the purpose of reaching one million signatures in May". ‘One of Us’ national coordinators from 25 countries convened in Brussels to share mutual initiatives and difficulties and "count" the signatures collected to date. At the end of the meeting participants pledged to step up action at local level in order to bring the initiative to completion.