Climate, maternity, aid to development

The May issue of the monthly magazine Europe Infos, published by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) in conjunction with the Jesuit European Office (Ocipe) features an editorial on the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. According to Piotr Mazurkiewicz, current COMECE Secretary, from Poland, “his legacy hasn’t been put into practice yet”. Other themes addressed in the periodical of European bishops are the follow-up of the Copenhagen Conference, the implementation of the citizenship initiative, cooperation for development, maternity leave, the report on the European Conference on Work-Free Sunday, the COMECE spring plenary meeting and a testimony on the situation of Copt Christians in Egypt. The May issue concludes with a homage to Msgr. Homeyer, ex-COMECE President, recently passed away, by Michael Kuhn, collaborator of the COMECE Secretary: “For Msgr. Homeyer it was crucial to combine Gospel preaching with its concrete impact and with its implementation in the realm of social policies. He was a convinced European and a man of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue”. After the Copenhagen Conference. “The commitment shown by the two largest emitters of CO2 (United States and China) to cut their greenhouse gas emissions; the recognition of the 2ºC figure as the upper acceptable limit of global warming; a financial commitment to contribute to the mitigation and adaptation measures that the developing countries will need to undertake over the coming years”: in a nutshell, these are the achievements of the Copenhagen Conference mentioned by Jesuit José Ignacio García, from English economist Lord Stern’s report on the economic and social assessment of climate change. But this is not all: it must be acknowledged that long-term deadlines the achievement of the various targets (2020 e 2050) constitute a deterrent to politicians that are more attentive to short-term elections considerations. But negotiations and reunions move on. The meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), held at the beginning of April, addressed the commitments for greenhouse gas reduction at national level (next Conferences will be in Cancún in December 2010 and in South Africa in 2011). However, concludes José Ignacio García “it is not only politicians and scientists who are responsible for picking up the pieces of this immense and highly sensitive challenge. The whole of civil society is called to contribute. The churches, in particular, are well-paced to contribute to the necessary long-term reform measures”. Maternity leave across EU States. The next plenary meeting of the European Parliament of May 18 will vote on the Parliamentary Commission for the Rights of Women’s proposal to extend to 20 weeks maternity leave with full retribution, which amounts to 14 weeks in most EU States, along with the establishment of a paternity leave of at least two weeks. Christian Wehking explains, “the proposal was criticised by numerous MEPs and lobbies”, and mentioned the German MEP Thomas Mann (PPE), who affirmed that the enforcement of the proposal would cost 700 million Euros to Germany and “it might become a barrier to the recruitment of women”. Socialist and Green parties endorsed the proposal as it is in line with a “more progressive family policy”. The theme triggered hot debates in the previous legislature, when a third of the government rejected a similar proposal submitted to the Council of ministers by the Commission for the Rights of Women. Conversely, Wehking recalls, the COMECE Secretary endorsed the proposal envisaging the extension of maternity leave to 18 weeks (submitted in 2008), since it “promoted work-family life balance” and proposed a special leave in case of handicapped children, in need of utmost protection. Cooperation for development in dialogue. Bernd Nilles, CIDSE Secretary General, drew a balance of the forum called by CISDE and Caritas Europe (Brussels, March 2-4) on 2-4 marzo 2010) on “EC Cooperation with civil society in the North and the South: creating and enabling environment for poverty eradication”. “As relates to the volume of aid there is a gap between the commitments taken and reality”, Nilles points out: “In 2009 only 6 Member States followed through their 2005 commitments to give 0.56% of GDP to developing countries”. The EU has pledged to improve the quality of aid in the framework of the Paris Declaration adopted in 2005 by donating and recipient Countries, while it is now possible for organizations and local authorities of South-world Countries to petition for European funds, thus modifying the traditional North-South cooperation system. The Forum proposed a set of recommendations that include simplifying regulations regarding fund repartition – whose complexity often prevents poor communities from accessing donations – and a call to facilitate consultations on the planned measures between governments and civil society organizations of the South.