Institute reminds EU candidates: Families are in danger in Europe and Spain

Madrid, Spain, May 29, 2009 / 13:01 pm

The Institute for Family Policy in Spain has reminded candidates vying for a seat in the upcoming European Parliament elections that the family remains “a pending issue” in Europe and Spain.

The president of the Institute, Eduardo Hertfelder, recalled that Spain is following the general European trend in which immigration is the only thing preventing an even more severe decline in the number of marriages.

Currently, “There are 16,836 less marriages taking place annually in Spain than in 1990.  But this number would have actually risen to 42,500 were it not for the injection of international marriages,” the Institute said.

“The decline in the number of marriages both in Spain as well as in the rest of Europe is dramatic,” Hertfelder said. “That there are increasingly fewer people getting married in Europe is a sad reality. It is clearly significant that, despite the increase in the population of Europe to more than 25 million between 1990 and 2007, the number of marriages has dropped by more than 570,000 per year during this same period,” he stated.

Hertfelder said the decline was due to the deplorable family policies of many governments in Europe, especially in Spain.

As a solution, he called for a European Pact for the Family that would recognize and promote the rights of the family and would remove the obstacles that prevent the family from flourishing.

The elections for the European Parliament will be held on June 7.