GETTY EU could shelve public law making scheme due to popular anti-gay marriage petition

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Talks last month revealed the citizens’ initiative "did not always move European law but tended to involve highly controversial and emotionally charged issues". Bureaucrat Jean-Claude Juncker “was in favour of discussing these matters at the Commission seminar to be held early in 2016”.

GETTY Bureaucrat Jean-Claude Juncker is open to the changed plans

The commission must look at proposed changes to EU law if a petition gains more than one million signatures from seven member countries. The Mums, Dads and Kids petition will officially launch later this month, and states that “wide parts of the population are very uncomfortable with the surreptitious re-definition of marriage”.

GETTY Petition to ban same-sex marriage gets more than one million signatures

The proposed law would allow countries to offer same-sex marriage, but would also give countries the option to deny homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. Paul Moynan, director of Christian charity Care For Europe, said: “We want to see laws which support family life, and respect each member state’s right to make their own family policies.

“With only 1.5 children being born to each European woman, there is an urgent need to encourage family life. "Our populations are ageing and are less and less able to replace themselves. This spells economic and sociological disaster. “This is not so much a protest, but rather an urgent call for EU support for our most valuable institution, the family. “It is regrettable that the Commission which prides itself on standing up for minorities, here wants to dismiss the interest of the majority." One petition to stop EU money being used to fund abortions or medical research that uses embryos, which received 1.7million signatures.