A Note on the Status of Life Issues in the European Union: The Election of Mrs. Roberta Metsola

Feb 7

Feb 7 A Note on the Status of Life Issues in the European Union: The Election of Mrs. Roberta Metsola

Throughout January, European news outlets penned countless articles reporting on the election of Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola to the Presidency of the European Parliament. At first glance, there does not appear to be any immediate reason for special noteworthiness or concern. The EU Parliamentary Presidency, examined comparatively, is not an especially powerful or consequential office. The role essentially functions similar to a lower house parliamentary speaker in a national legislature, and its holders almost always originate from one of the Union’s two major center-right/left political parties, the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists, respectively. Mrs. Metsola originates from the former of these, the mainstream, nominally conservative, and center-right EPP, and therefore her appointment on the surface does not appear any more or less remarkable than the result of any other EU-level election.

If one were to look beyond the actual details of Mrs. Metsola’s election itself, however, and instead examine European press reporting on the event, they might come to a very different conclusion, one filled with concern rather than languid disinterest or apathy. Some outlets reported on the election with positivity, remarking on Mrs. Metsola’s becoming the youngest-ever EU Parliamentary President, and the first female since 2002 to hold the office. Such reports arrive resplendent with the normal glee expressed by journalists at the occasion of such boilerplate progressive accomplishments as are noted above, and are par for the course in contemporary political news coverage.

All of this said, it must be stated that not all reports were as positive as those noted above. A variety of outlets published stories expressive of concern over Mrs. Metsola’s election, given her history of holding steadfast to Pro-Life and Anti-Abortion stances in her native Malta. It is in response to such stories, which range from fairly standard news coverage to egregious editorializing on the clandestine spectrum of journalistic integrity, that this commentary was written.

It is abundantly clear, from any possible angle of examination based in reality, that appointments/elections such as Mrs. Metsola’s do not call for the concern expressed by news outlets. This is true even if one is to adopt the same moral-political biases and positions as these outlets all seem to possess in lockstep with one another, and it is true for one simple reason. The inherent liberal-centrism of the European Union, as well as its inherent federalism, and even the specific power-limitations of the EU Parliamentary President, makes it incredibly unlikely that any sort of truly socially conservative Pro-Life Policy (of the sort that left-liberal journalists fear, anyway) would ever come to fruition within its internal mechanisms on a Union-wide level.

Firstly, Mrs. Metsola herself offered assurances to allay the worries of Pro-Choice/Pro-Abortion activists and concern-holders that her appointment would signal an Anti-Abortion turn in the European Parliament. Soon after her election, the new President pledged to represent the EU Parliament’s views, rather than her personal ones, in future political proceedings. Similarly, one of her first acts as Parliamentary President was to sign a pact put forth by the EU Parliament’s Liberal “Renew” Coalition aimed at guaranteeing (among other things), abortion and contraceptive access across the Union. Considering that actions as definitive to their respective implications as these have already taken place so short into Mrs. Metsola’s 2.5-year term as Parliamentary President, it is again clear that much of the concern voiced (feigned or otherwise) by several news outlets might merely have been much ado about nothing, even from their own point of view.

Even beyond Mrs. Metsola herself, however, there is little indication that the state of abortion and many other life issues will move in a more socially conservative and right-wing direction any time soon, if current trends hold. This statement can be directly evidenced by French President Macron’s statement (as France assumes its position as President of the European Council) urging for abortion access to be enshrined in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, a statement which, given the status of the man who made it, stands to signal the direction of Life Issues in the Union more accurately than the (as demonstrated above, uninfluential) personal political views of a newly appointed Parliamentary President.

Furthermore, even Metsola’s own party, the nominally conservative EPP, has adopted resolutions calling for the continuity and expansion of access to abortion in Europe. Particular points such as this ultimately serve to demonstrate the stark difference in European political realities vis-à-vis Life Issues versus a country such as the United States, where the conservative right comparatively flexes Pro-Life power and rhetoric with much more effective results. Even aside from the abortion issue, other Life Issues such as euthanasia continue to proceed (albeit with apparently less-ease than that of abortion access) throughout the European Union, proving that the overall state of Life Politics in Europe is in no place to evoke legitimate concern from those who advocate in favour of Pro-Choice policies.

In conclusion, all that remains to state in this brief polemic is that despite voiced concern in the European and Extra-European presses alike, there is virtually no indication that Mrs. Metsola, nor any other senior aspect of EU leadership, will contribute to a Pro-Life shift in the Union’s politics any time soon. Whilst individual states such as Poland and Malta might represent pariahs on the continent as far as Life Issues are concerned, this note only concerns the EU apparatus and mechanism at-large; an apparatus where even from the most dedicated of Pro-Choice positions it cannot be seriously argued that the Pro-Life is even remotely ascendant. Therefore, whenever you next browse journalistic outlets and stumble across the latest piece espousing concern over Life Issues in Europe, it would be apt to recommend an ample grain of salt be consumed alongside it.