Family: we should underline the important role of family in Europe.

Today, the world is celebrating the International Day of Family declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993. In 2012, the focus is on national policy of conciliation towards a better balance between family life and professional life.

"Europe needs to be reminded that family is crucial to our welfare. If we want to recover from the crisis, we have to implement family mainstreaming in all political decisions that influence the well-being of families", said Anna Záborská, EPP Group MEP.

According to Mrs Záborská, family plays an important role as a source of solidarity between generations, which, together with active ageing, is the central theme of the European Year 2012. "Whether we devise policies at European level aimed at balancing family life and professional life, or we try to identify ways to strengthen the solidarity principle to improve the lives of our senior citizens, we realise that family is the cornerstone of it all", stressed Mrs Záborská, who is known for the active promotion of the family mainstreaming principle in European legislation.