THE HAGUE, 08/08/09 - Youth and Family Minister Rouvoet will "of course" open the World Congress of Families in Amsterdam next Monday. He rejects suggestions from various parties in the Lower House that his participation is undesirable.

Although no party is actually demanding that Rouvoet stay away from the congress, the centre-left D66, leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), conservatives (VVD) and socialists (SP) are not happy with his participation. The World Population Foundation (WPF) and youth organisation Choice, who promote individual choice about sexuality and having children, did ask the minister explicitly not to take part in the three-day congress.

But his spokesman confirmed on Friday that Rouvoet will go ahead with the opening as planned. He will welcome the congress participants on Monday with a video message, which was recorded several weeks ago.

The congress is associated with The Howard Center, which supports the view that the 'natural human family was designed by the Creator, and is essential for a good society'. D66 MP Boris van der Ham claims that the organisation is opposed to gay marriage, contraception and the right to abortion and euthanasia.

Van der Ham wants Rouvoet, who is also leader of the Christian party ChristenUnie, to seize the opportunity to stress that in the Netherlands, single parents or homosexual couples are also 'valued family forms'. GroenLinks, too, wants Rouvoet to emphasise "Dutch values".

SP MP Renske Leijten will also be paying close attention. "They are not banned organisations; they may have their own opinions. But if Rouvoet starts carrying out missionary work, he is overstepping the bounds." VVD MP Ineke Dezentje said rather cynically that she hoped "that Rouvoet would also open a congress in honour of single parents some time".

Rouvoet "will make it clear that he is the Youth and Family Minister for all families, whatever their form," his spokesman declared on Friday. "He will call on the participants to build bridges on the issue of how we can live together in a society in which different views about the family exist."

The World Population Foundation (WPF) calls the organisers "extreme rightwing Christians", who view the Netherlands with its liberal principles as a mission country. The website of the congress calls the Netherlands "the heart of the EU, and a bastion of its anti-family policy".