The European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR) held the second edition of the European Congress on Family in Dubrovnik, southern Croatia. The event brought together, from October 18-20, 2024, legislators and government officials, association leaders, academics and specialists from across the continent.

“We have a very clear vision: we are open to debate, but the family is always at the center, and this congress expresses this conviction of ours,” said Antonio Giordano, secretary general of the ECR.

The event had the collaboration of the International Organization for the Family (IOF) and Political Network for Values (PNfV).

“We were very pleasantly surprised by this magnificent event where we saw a large number of political leaders from all over Europe agree that support for the natural family is the key to meeting the continent’s demographic challenge,” said Lola Velarde, executive director of PNfV.

The congress, in practice, made a very clear alignment for party members on the place of the family in their public policies and legislative initiatives, and showed that a cross-cutting point of collaboration can be established around this issue by inviting leading members of Patriots for Europe and the European People’s Party. The ECR is currently led by Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy.

“At the conservative level we share fundamental values on which we want to build the future of Europe; one of the most important is the family as a fundamental element of communities and societies,” said Kinga Gal, member of the European Parliament and vice-president of Patriots for Europe.

Gal participated in a panel on pro-family public policies, presenting the Hungarian experience, one of the most successful in the region, together with Adam Bielan, Member of the European Parliament for Poland, Marijan Pavliček, president of the Croatian Sovereignist Party, Italian MEPs Maddalena Morgante and Fabrizio Sala, and Lola Velarde, executive director of PNfV.

Other topics addressed were the demographic winter, new technologies and their impact on the nuclear family, the educational challenge and conservative values in the change for Europe.

Panelists included Mateusz Morawiecki, former prime minister of Poland; Eugenia Roccella, Italy’s minister of family (online); Antonella Sberna, vice president of the European Parliament; and Croatia’s ministers Ante Šušnjar, of Economy, and Ivan Šipić, of Demography.

Also Members of the European Parliament Stephen Bartulica, from Croatia; Laurence Trochu, from France; Chiara Gemma, from Italy; Joachim Brudzinski, from Poland; and Georgiana Teodorescu, from Romania.

And Italian economist Domenico Lombardi, Icelandic political scientist Hannes Gissurarson, German investor Tilman Rüsch, Italian journalist Giancarla Rondinelli, Elina Treija, president of The Union of Latvian Large Families and Brian Brown, president of IOF.