The family, law, religion and society in the European Union and Malta

Abstract

The aim of this Project was to bring together leading academics and representatives of civil society to research and discuss the Family-related acquis communautaire, and then the role of religion in the public sphere, taking Family Policy as a case-example. This was done in the full knowledge that the EU has no specific competence in the area of family policy, but also of the recognition in the Constitutional Treaty of the importance of values, and hence of religions in a secular pluralist Europe. The idea was to initiate a fruitful debate in predominantly Catholic Malta about such issues, to heighten awareness about the place of religion in the European Union, to indicate what leading (mainly, but not all, Catholic) academics in Malta think, and at the same time to explain the approaches taken in practice by some leading NGOs in Malta, while noting changes in Maltese society due to the impact of certain societal trends over the last three decades and the multi-culturalisation of Maltese society as it takes its place in a world of ever-increasing mobility of persons and as a Member State of the European Union. The purpose is to present the current state of EU law and policy, and the wider European legal dimension, as well as the current realities and debates in and about Maltese society, and to site the Maltese perspective within the wider European perspective. A major aim is that of dispelling myths, untruths and false impressions and to clarify for the ordinary citizen the context in which it is possible to preserve and live one’s values while constructing an inclusive society under the rule of law.