(Brussels) – “As the year is about to end, many issues about family life are very relevant to the European political agenda”, write Antoine Renard and Maria Hildingsson, president and secretary general of Fafce, the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations, respectively, as they presented the new issue of the federation’s newsletter with the latest news from Brussels (www.fafce.org). They refer, first, to the recent “condemnation of any form of surrogate motherhood by the European Parliament” and the European Commission’s public consultation about “family/work life balance”, which all European citizens are called to take part in (deadline 17th February). Fafce also supports the European Citizens’ Initiative “Father, Mother and Children” that aims at having the European Commission fulfil the principle of subsidiarity in the definition of marriage in each member State and asks that European rules be adjusted to the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Fafce’s position is supported by a recent referendum in Slovenia, in which the population confirmed they want to keep the traditional definition of marriage, as opposed to what has been laid down by the national Parliament.