On the 11th of May 2018, our 16th General Assembly was held in the city of Bratislava, Slovakia. It was a fruitful GA where a new ECPM Vision on EU and Europe was accepted, as well as three resolutions by two of our member parties and our youth organization.
 
ECPM President and MEP Branislav Škripek opened the General Assembly with prayer and welcomed everyone in the city of Bratislava. In his opening speech he focused on the importance of speaking out the Christian message loudly and clearly in Europe, especially considering the upcoming elections next year. “I would like to also point out that I see as very important to defend and stand for people who are persecuted for their faith or are experiencing any form of oppression and criticism for Christian values,” Škripek continued. “We, as public figures, should urge and motivate people not to stay silent but to express their voice in public.”

A report of the activities of the Advisory Council was given by its President Heiner Studer. After the financial report of 2017 by ECPM Board member Stieneke van der Graaf, ECPM Vice President George Rukhadze shared ECPM’s vision on the upcoming 2019 elections where we hope to consolidate Christian votes across Europe, and mentioned that the ECPM campaign will focus on the needs of its member parties.

ECPM’s Relations and Communication Manager Maria van Oost then gave a presentation on the new rules for European political parties. After the break, this was followed by the introduction of three resolutions that were submitted to the General Assembly. The first resolution of member party Bundnis-C on “The reference to God and to the Jewish-Christian inheritance of Europe in the Lisbon Treaty”, presented by their President Karin Heepen, was accepted with only one abstention. ECPYouth submitted a resolution on “Human Trafficking”, presented by their board member Gabriela Urbanova, was accepted unanimously. The third resolution, “Climate Change”, was submitted by member party Christen Unie and FICDD and presented by Coordinator International Affairs Lisca van der Eijk. It was accepted with one abstention. The full text of all three accepted resolutions will be made available on our website soon.

During the General Assembly, the ECPM Vision document on EU and Europe was also accepted with one amendment and one abstention. We are very glad with this ECPM Vision for the coming years that combines all our members’ voices and has been worked on extensively. The 16th GA of ECPM was concluded by a short presentation by ECPM’s Director of European Affairs Leo van Doesburg wherein he shared his activities of the last months in the Council of Europe.