The interested public is eagerly awaiting the publication of the European Commission’s opinion on the ECI ‘My Voice, My Choice’, which is now expected on Thursday because the Commission’s weekly meeting has been postponed by one day. The spokesperson for the initiative’s organising committee, Nika Kovač, is already close to tears because she has heard that the special fund to promote abortion tourism will probably not materialise. But if one is to believe the Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant”, which claims to have seen a draft of the text to be released by the Commission, then the pro-life movement has also no reason to be satisfied, but rather cause for protest.
De Volkskrant writes: “De jarenlange pogingen van Kovač en haar medestrijders ten spijt ziet het er niet gunstig uit. Uit een conceptreactie, ingezien door de Volkskrant, blijkt dat er geen apart Brussels fonds voor abortus komt. De Commissie wijst er wel op dat de lidstaten al toegekend EU-geld mogen gebruiken voor abortuszorg, mits dit binnen hun eigen nationale wetgeving past.”
In English translation: “Despite years of efforts by Kovač and her fellow campaigners, the outlook is not promising. A draft response seen by de Volkskrant reveals that there will be no separate Brussels fund for abortion. The Commission does however point out that Member States are already allowed to use EU funds allocated to them for abortion care, provided this is in line with their own national legislation.“
This statement is outrageous and the Commission should urgently be asked to explain it.
In this context, it should be remembered that ‘ONE OF US’ proposed a change to EU budget law in the 2014 citizens’ initiative, for which more than 1.7 million statements of support were collected, far exceeding the signatures collected by the pro-abortion initiative, to ensure that no activities are financed with EU budget funds. The draft legislation we presented at that time can be found here.
ONE OF US is to date the most successful of all European citizens’ initiatives submitted so far – so it can be said that there is no demand that European citizens have brought to the European Commission with greater clarity and urgency than that of not misusing taxpayers’ money to kill children.
In its response to our ECI, which we felt was insincere at the time, the Commission did not dispute the fundamental validity of our concern, but stated that idid not see a need to propose changes to the EU’s Financial Regulation because “EU primary legislation explicitly enshrines human dignity, the right to life, and the right to the integrity of the person”, and “the EU Financial Regulation states that all EU expenditure should comply with EU primary legislation.” In other words, the Commission asserted at the time that already under the existing rules, and thanks to the protection of human dignity, the right to life, and the integrity of the human person, funds from the EU budget could not be, and were never going to be, used to finance abortions.
If what De Volkskrant reports is true, then the Commission is now saying the opposite: even without a special fund to support abortion tourism, EU funds can be used by EU Member States to fund abortions.
These two statements are incompatible with each other. The law has not changed: EU primary law still contains all references to dignity, integrity, and the right to life that the Commission quoted in its response to ONE OF US, and the Financial Regulation still requires all EU expenditure to comply with EU primary law.
Either the response given to ONE OF US in 2014 contained a falsehood, or the response to “My Voice, My Choice”, if it indeed contains what De Volkskrant is reporting, must be false.
We will still see whether the final text of which De Volkskrant has seen a draft will still contain the assertion that EU funds can be used for abortions. But if it does, the Commsission will have a serious credibility problem.
one-of-us.org 