The European Large Families Confederation (ELFAC) claims in Brussels against the discrimination of the families with more children in Europe

ELFAC organized a Conference on “Demographic Winter” in the European Parliament

The Conference took place the 4th of March and It was inaugurated by the President of Intergroup on Family and the Protection of Childhood, the Greek Marie Panaiatopoulos-Cassiotou, and by Fernando Castro, president of ELFAC. Mr. Castro introduced the documentary as “a politically incorrect, important warning, real and objective”. He regretted that “in spite of the repeated alerts of scientists and academics about that we are going to suffer within the next 25-50 years, we still not pay attention to the low birth rates of our countries, to the serious problem of this essential subject.” He warned us: “This is the mome

nt!”

After the showing the documentary “Demographic Winter, the decline of the human family” Jose Ribeiro Castro, Portuguese Member of the European Parliament, explained that “the European social model will not be finished if we are not able to invert this serious demographical decline very quickly”. He claimed for a new political attitude on the public policies in a pro-family sense: “This is not only a political matter, it concerns the hole society. Europe needs more children and this means more strong families, more stables families”.

Raul Sanchez, director of the Institute of Advanced Family Studies of the International University of Catalonia, added that “this deficit is still much more significant if we consider  the number of children that women would like to have. Referring to the last surveys, women in Europe in the fertile age would like to have an average of 2,3 children, but the reality shows an average of 1,5.” At ones he concludes: “It means that Europe will be able to assure the replacement of the generations (2,1) if the hole society respects the wills of the European citizens as having the family they want, without social, economical or fiscal discrimination by number of children”.

Jiří Král, General Director of Social and Family Policy in the Czech Republic, explained the efforts of the Czech Presidency of EU to promotes a new perspective of the family policies in the state-members “recognizing the priority of the family and demographic issues for the future of Europe and spreading the best practices”.

The documentary “Demographic Winter, the decline of the human family” was showed in the Conference of ELFAC, with the attendance of members of the European Parliament, representatives of the European Commission and from NGO's. The documentary explores the severe economic and social consequences of family decline and plummeting birthrates worldwide.  Scholars from many backgrounds give economic, social scientific, demographic and historic context to population decline and the impact families have on the strength and stability of society.  The film’s fast moving and artistic style highlights the research of economists (including a Nobel laureate), demographers, social scientists, and authors in an impactful way.