WARSAW (RNS/ENI) A German politician has launched a referendum to demand the restoration of Sunday as a day for rest and family life across the European Union.

“This is the right time to show that, as European citizens, we want to involve ourselves, not only through elections, but also in other ways,” Martin Kastler, a member of the European Parliament from Germany’s co-governing Christian Social Union, explained on the petition Web site, http://www.freesunday.eu.

“The work-free Sunday is part of our European culture. We need time for our families and relationships, for civil society and religion,” said Kastler. “A life full of working days is unlikely to be fulfilling.”

The statement was published after the launch of the campaign, “Mum and Dad belong to us on Sunday” — the first European Citizens Initiative under the Lisbon Treaty, which overhauled EU governance when it took effect last December.

“This campaign should build up huge public pressure — in this way, no one will be able to ignore us,” said the 35-year-old Kastler, a father of two. “Europe should be the most child-friendly region in the world, so people from different political and social backgrounds should rally behind the protection of Sunday.”

In February 2009, members of the European Parliament from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovakia tabled a declaration — which was supported by European church leaders — that urged Sunday to be protected in future EU legislation to safeguard “workers’ health and the reconciliation of work and family life.”

At the same time, another German representative in the European Parliament, Thomas Mann, is co-organizing a conference in Brussels on March 24 to re-launch the debate on work-free Sundays.

Johanna Touzel, the spokeswoman for the Commission of EU Catholic Bishops Conferences, said, “Sunday rest is important for the health and wellbeing of working people — this is a social, rather than religious, issue which affects much of the population.”