News,

UPDATED: 9 January 2012

Dear supporter,

Just before the close of the European Parliament session in July, the pro-abortion lobby held a meeting on sexual and reproductive rights, hosted by the women's rights and gender equality committee chair Eva-Britt Svensson. Wanda Nowicka, one of the speakers at the meeting and the leader of the pro-abortion lobby in Poland, said: “We don’t need hard law; we only need a movement for EU competency [on abortion].” Hard law means legally binding agreements. EU competency means giving EU bureaucracy the authority to interpret agreed legislation agreements.

The pro-abortion lobby has now put this plan into action, by proposing amendments to a report called “Situation of fundamental rights in the European Union”. The amendments have been proposed via FEMM, the European Parliament's women's rights and gender equality committee. SPUC is concerned with the danger posed to unborn children by amendment 51 which mentions abortion, and the other amendments listed below that are being proposed to create a framework that would be favourable to enforcing abortion on EU member states.

The Legislative Observatory of the EU has recently been updated, and now indicates that the report is due to be debated by the whole parliament in its plenary session on 2 July 2012 in Strasbourg. This is another forecast date and could change in the coming months. It remains to be seen whether and which amendments will make it past committee stage. The civil liberties committee will consider and vote on which amendments to accept and which to reject.

The amendments are aimed at giving the European Commission greater influence over abortion, by tying it to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights which was made legally binding by the Lisbon Treaty, and by decreasing the autonomy of EU member-states when it comes to legislating on abortion.

The amendments are listed below for your information. Please contact the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) for your region and urge them to oppose the amendments. Your MEP may sit on the civil liberties committee (list of members) as a full member or substitute member, which means they have direct influence. If your MEP does not sit on the civil liberties committee, they can still have indirect influence through their colleagues. All MEPs have the power to table amendments even if they are not part of a certain committee. If you are resident in the UK, you can find the contact-details for your region's MEPs at http://www.europarl.org.uk/section/your-meps/your-meps If you are resident elsewhere in the European Union, you can find the contact-details for MEPs at http://bit.ly/pFXrT4 Please don't forget to copy any replies you receive from MEPs to SPUC either by email to political@spuc.org.uk or by post to SPUC HQ. SPUC will keep you updated with further information on this debate.

The first amendment seeks to remove member state independence when it comes to interpreting the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The remaining amendments inserted seek to create a more powerful and influential EU Commission that can interpret and enforce the Charter of Rights, and penalise member states if the EU Commission considers that a member state is not complying.

• "Whereas the judicial authorities of Member States are independent and may determine their own interpretation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (DELETED)"
• "Whereas the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon created a new situation in the EU in the field of human rights by making the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding (Article 6 TEU), (INSERTED)"
• "Calls on the Commission to control thoroughly the implementation of European legislation related to gender equality in the Member States (INSERTED)"
• "Invites the European Commission in the following years to consider a proposal for a legal framework on the issue of multiple and intersectional discrimination (INSERTED)"
• "Is concerned about women's sexual and reproductive rights and health in some Member State; calls especially on the Member States to respect the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children, and to have information and the means to do so, including access to health care, legal and safe abortion and reliable, safe and affordable contraception (INSERTED)"
• "considers that the Commission should more effectively use all available means, including, where appropriate, infringement procedures, in order to ensure that Charter provisions are applied when implementing the EU law.(INSERTED)"
• "Calls on the Commission to find effective ways to follow up breaches of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, outstanding issues and specific cases of violations of fundamental rights and to carry out occasional audits in all Member States to identify unfulfilled Commitments. (INSERTED)"

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