AfD GERMANY AND EUROPE

With 94 seats in the Bundestag (13.3%) hereafter are AfD’s views on Europe

1. AfD opposes the idea to transform the European Union into a centralised federal state. AfD is in favour of returning the European Union to an economic union based on shared interests, and consisting of sovereign, but loosely connected nation states. AfD rejects the idea of a United States of Europe, as well as that of a federal state from which an exit is impossible.
2. AfD believes in a sovereign Germany, which guarantees the freedom and security of its citizens, promotes economic welfare, and contributes to a peaceful and prosperous Europe. If a fundamental reform within the present framework of the European Union does not take place, AfD shall seek Germany‘s exit, or a democratic dissolution of the EU, followed by the founding of a new European economic union.
3. AfD believes in the freedom of the European nations devoid of foreign paternalism. Structures based on the rule of law, economic prosperity, as well as a stable and equitable social system should be regarded as national responsibilities. AfD supports structural reforms to strengthen the international competitiveness of European states, but is decidedly opposed to a transfer union and any efforts towards centralisation. A fundamental reform of the EU is necessary, if it is to remain a beacon of freedom and democracy in the world.
4. AfD advocates the strict retention of the principle of subsidiarity and the restoration of powers to the nation states. The vision of a centralised European state inevitably entails the loss of sovereignty of individual EU member states and their constituent populations. Only the national democracies, created by their nations in painful history, are able to offer their citizens the necessary and desired framework for identification and shelter. Only they can offer the greatest possible rights of individual and collective freedom. Only they can maintain and ensure these rights. The increasing centralisation of sovereignty rights, and attempts to create a European federal state, are irrational and not sustainable. The AfD firmly rejects these endeavours. The governing bodies of the EU, especially the Council of Ministers, the EU Commission, and the EU Parliament are not sufficiently and democratically legitimised. These deficiencies in the system, and the office bearers’ remoteness from daily life, have promoted the creation of excessive powers and bureaucratic structures.
5. AfD advocates the pooling of European community interests without curtailing the sovereignty, democratic co-operation, and legislative powers of member states. AfD rejects a formal, common EU Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), as well as a common European Foreign Service. Instead, AfD strives to strengthen interstate agreements among European partner nations and, where possible, to act jointly. AfD advocates a flexible network of European states in which each European nation can participate according to its capabilities. AfD also opposes admission of Turkey to the EU. As far as relations with non-European countries are concerned, the foreign policy and security interests of Germany are to be taken into consideration.
6. AfD calls for an end to the Euro experiment and its orderly dissolution. Should the German Federal Parliament not agree to this demand, Germany’s continued membership of the single currency area should be put to a popular vote. Going by all historical experience, a single currency area is not suited to a heterogeneous, supranational monetary union and should, in the first place, never have been expanded beyond the free-trade zone of the EEC. After seventeen years of artificially-enforced, market remote currency regulations, the common currency is no longer viable without ongoing massive wealth transfers into EU member states that do not meet the standards of the currency union. The Euro project has thus become a failure. The legacy of Europe’s history is the democratic rule of law and the peaceful co-existence of sovereign nation states. The establishment of the Euro zone thus threatens to destroy this cultural heritage. In order to prevent this, the foolhardy Euro experiment should be instantly discontinued. The AfD advocates an end to Germany’s continued participation in the mistaken rescue politics, which are economically and legally flawed, and to exit the EU monetary union should the partner states reject this proposal. As an alternative to the German exit, a joint and controlled dissolution of the monetary union will be put forward. Any future federal government, in which the AfD participates, shall exercise the right to leave the Euro monetary union by claiming circumventions of the fundamental principles and cessation of the economic basis of the Euro agreements. Germany’s withdrawal from the monetary union is in the national and European interest.
7. AfD opposes the progressive European collectivisation of liability risks from banking transactions. The AfD demands that the joint liabilities of German banks are confined to the national level, and that, as before, German banks are permitted to establish their own system of cross-guarantees, which take into account the different banking profiles. This demand of limiting the liability of German banks to the national level will become a non-negotiable item of any future coalition agreement on government signed by the AfD. The supervision of banks has to remain entirely under national jurisdiction, irrespective of unified EU standards. The German banking supervision should at all times be able to set up and enforce regulations on equity capital securities.