COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, was founded with the approval of the Holy See on 3 March 1980. It was preceded by the European Catholic Pastoral Information Service (SIPECA, 1976-1980). Throughout the 1970s discussions on the creation of an instrument of liaison between the Bishops‘ Conferences and European Community finally led, in 1979, before the first direct elections to the European Parliament, to the decision to establish COMECE.