“A child is not an entitlement, and parenthood is not an entitlement; instead, a child is a gift, and parenthood is a responsibility”. This is how the President of the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (Fafce), Vincenzo Bassi, answers, in a letter, to the announcement of a legislative initiative of the EU Commission on “Cross-border family situations – Recognition of parenthood”. Last December, the EU Commission published a legislative proposal and calls the citizens to share their views in a public consultation by 13^th February. The initiative involves the automatic recognition of “parenthood” across the EU countries. According to the European Commission, such initiative will not change marriage law in the member states of the EU, which have sole jurisdiction on family law. “However, the introduction of a new legal category, ‘parenthood’, that goes beyond the current term ‘filiation’, has an impact on domestic family law”, the President of Fafce commented. If approved, such initiative would automatically extend the legal effects of filiation to all kinds of “parenthood” legally acquired in a EU member state, even through surrogacy, in all EU countries. “In this scenario, the European Commission’s proposal would be in conflict with article 9 of the Charter of Fundamental Entitlements of the EU, which says: ‘The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights’”.