European pro-life groups are celebrating this week as more than 1.8 million signatures have been gathered for a campaign aimed at preventing the funding of embryo research in the EU.
‘One of Us’ was one of the first registered European citizens’ initiatives (ECI) in the European Union, and according to the initiative’s president, Grégor Puppinck, the “first and greatest success”.
The campaign uses the new EU Citizen’s initiative mechanism to ask the European Commission to bring forward legislation.
To succeed, the initiative needed least one million EU citizen’s signatures, coming from a minimum of 7 out of the 27 member states.
Each country had a quota of signatures that it had to reach. In the end, 20 of the 27 EU states reached their quotas including Ireland.
The overwhelming support for the initiative, according to Dr Puppinck, highlights “the will to defend the human embryo is deeply rooted within the populations of Europe”.
As of now, the national authorities in each member state have 3 months to certify the final number of valid statements collected. Then, within 3 months, the European Commission and Parliament will both meet the organisers to discuss in detail the issues raised in the initiative.
The organisers of the initiative will now continue, before the European Commission and Parliament, to advocate for the respect of the human being, from the beginning of their life.