Brussels, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the International Family Day on 15 May, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the EC (COFACE) appealed to the European institutions for a "real family policy at EU and Member State level to be created or, where appropriate, strengthened". COFACE calls for the right for every person to found a family and the right to respect of every person's private and family life, as recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Art. 7 and 9) to be given concrete substance by taking greater account of the family dimension in the different European policies and through support to the associations that represent families. The same is true for the protection of the family at the judicial, economic and social levels. Above all, however, COFACE calls for the family dimension to be explicitly included in the text of the Treaty, so that appropriate family measures may be duly decided and implemented at European, national, regional or local level, in the constructive respect of the principle of subsidiarity.
COFACE forwarded its appeal to Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and to his Foreign Minister, Josep Piqué, as well as to the Presidents of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, the European Parliament, Pat Cox, the European Economic and Social Committee, Göke Frerichs, the Committee of the Regions, Sir Albert Bore, and of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.