In the autumn of 2008 ECPM representative Leo van Doesburg made a series of trips to Sofia, Bulgaria in order to encourage some of the Christian leaders involved in politics to come together and unite their efforts. As a direct result, an Initiative Committee (IC) was formed, comprised by the following leaders:

Peter Gjuzelev - Chairman of the IC, Member of the Sofia City Council and representative of the Bulgarian Christian Coalition political party

Maria Vassileva - a prominent community leader

Dr. Grigor Malev - former Member of Parliament

Nikolaj Nedelchev - Chairman of the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance

Andrew Nedelchev - Crown Europe Program Director

Ivan Hazurbasanov - representative of the Christian Democratic Forum political Party

Grozdan Stoevski - Crown Bulgaria National Director and coordinator of IC activities

One of the first issues, addressed by the IC was related to the Draft Family Code, which would allow co-habitation without a legitimate marriage relationship.

In this regard the IC promoted and organized a one-day Conference on "The Influence of the family institution in society". The event was organized with the active participation and kind support of ECPM that ensured the presence of the following foreign speakers: Mark Mullins (London chairman of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship), Leo van Doesburg and Guido van Beusekom (both ECPM).  The meeting was dedicated to the holiday of the Christian family. It was coordinated by the Crown Bulgaria team and took place on November 19^th at the Radisson SAS Grand Hotel in Sofia .

The participants in the Conference signed a Declaration strongly opposing some of the contradictory articles of the Draft Family Code, especially those that would allow co-habitation. The main conclusion of the participants is that the introduction of the factual non-marital cohabitation will damage the lives of the families and the children.

The Declaration was officially presented to the Bulgarian Parliament and personally distributed to all Members of Parliament.
The IC was informed by internal sources that the Members of the Parliament have decided to postpone the acceptance of the Draft Family Code and leave it for the next Parliament mandate. This has been considered as a victory and a clear result of the joint efforts and unity of the Bulgarian Christian leaders that are involved in politics.

I would like to conclude this brief report with the words of Latchezar Popov, a Christian lawyer and President of Advocates Europe who has been very involved with the work of the IC: "In short this is a victory, as the next Parliament program should have its own program. It should to be decided by the Parliament itself, as this law is not a directive from the EU. Warm congratulations on a job well done and success! We remain united!"