The ECPM Congress of 21 and 22 September combined valuable, in-depth discussions with a fantastic atmosphere! More than 70 participants attended during either Friday or Saturday in the Novotel Brussels Airport in Diegem. The theme of the Congress was: Focusing on the Family. A Christian-democrat view on family policy in Europe.

The Congress started with the announcement that 4 new parties have joined the ECPM. These parties are the Evangelical Peoples Party and the Federal Democratic Union from Switzerland, The People's Party of Montenegro and the Belarussian Christian Democrats. The new members received a warm welcome form the other members.

After the presentation of the new members the Congress continued with a video message of Andre Rouvoet, Dutch minister of Youth and Family, followed by a presentation of the report on the evolution of families by Lola Velarde, president of the Institute for Family policies.

In the afternoon, the Congress continued with speeches from Peter Ostman (vice-chairman CD Finland) Marius and Ileana Radu (PNTCD and Areopagus, Romania), Gevorg Babayan (chairman CPUA, Armenia). The closing speech was given by Leon Meijer (Dutch Christian Labor Union).

After that all guests were transported to the center of Brussels for dinner and a some sight seeing.

The next day Kris Vleugels (Chairman, C'axent, Belgium) gave a lecture about the consequences of a lack of family policy while Rev. Okoth Otura introduced the attendants to the position of the family in Kenya.

Leo van Doesburg, the representative of the ECPM in Eastern Europe, updated us about the developments in Southeast-Europe.

Last June there has been a conference held in Lithuania for the Balkan countries. Paulius Saudargas, the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats (LKD), partly organized this conference. He prepared a report about this conference and showed this to us after the presentation of Leo van Doesburg.

Three delegates from the two German parties informed us about the status of their parties, and the crucial phase they are in right now. They asked us for our prayers for the Partei Bibeltreuen Christen (PBC) and Zentrum.

Lilit Kostanyan informed us about the CPUA and several activities in Armenia.

After this, the attendants were divided in two groups in order to discuss some more about the solution for the current problems of the family in Europe (the outcomes will be published on this website soon). After lunch there was time for the member Congress where Dick van Dijk was chosen as a new executive board member and where the ECPM members accepted the changes in board structure and the future plans of the ECPM.

Pictures taken during the Congress can be viewed here

As organizers of the ECPM Congress we would like to thank all speakers and attendants who made this a very fruitful and blessed Congress.

Anne Marije Staat
Guido van Beusekom