European Election Program, 9th European Parliament 2019, Europe of Nations

European Election Program

Program of the Alternative für Deutschland for Election

     of the 9th European Parliament 2019

A Europe of Nations

2.3.1 Private Provision for EU Functionaries

Upon separation, EU parliamentarians presently receive a super-sized retirement benefit from a pension fund. As a result of the EZB’s low interest rate policy, and similar to private and corporate retirement systems, the return on this fund has fallen off and there are large deficits. The AfD strictly opposes the present plan of Brussels for which the taxpayer now shall make compensation while the citizen must himself bear the reduction of life insurance and retirement benefits. In our EU model, the EU members and functionaries should themselves come up with their retirement and healthcare provisions.

2.3.2 Information and Transparency

While lobbyists and representatives of special interests are generally and first of all informed, as a rule information concerning EU institutions remains withheld from the citizens. During negotiations of commercial agreements such as the TTIP, information concerning the contents was withheld even from the parliamentarians of the national states. We demand an unrestricted right to information for all citizens and a maximum transparency and for all EU institutions a duty to publish all pertinent data as per the standard of the Hamburg transparency statute. We demand of non-governmental organizations (NGO) the annual presentation of a business report on financial sources and activities.

2.4 The Europa Parties and their Foundations

The “political parties at the European level” introduced by the Maastricht Treaty were in 2003 reconstructed into an expanded, gigantic instrument of state party financing. The “Europa parties” are not parties according to German law. Their financing of up to 100 percent by public means violates European law. Heedless of this, the established parties have opened up hereby an additional source of public financing. Since its introduction in 2004, the EU parliament has increased the means referred to from 3.2 million euros to 20.8 million euros per year.

Beyond that, the parties have agreed to foundations at the European level. So, for example, the foundation of the European Peoples’ Party (EVP), to which the CDU/CSU belongs, receives 4.9 million euros (2016). All told, approximately 16 million euros are paid out to the EU foundations. The AfD demands the immediate cessation of party financing at the European level.



[Translated by Todd Martin]

European Election Program, 9th European Parliament 2019, Europe of Nations

European Election Program

Program of the Alternative für Deutschland for Election

     of the 9th European Parliament 2019

A Europe of Nations

2.2.2 Referenda in European Affairs

As long as the sovereignty of the national states is not reconstructed, Germany may conclude or alter no treaty referring to EU expansion, a yielding of sovereignty or assent to liability without a referendum. We hold it to be a self-evident right of each of the peoples of the European Union to vote on remaining in the EU, the Monetary Union or special supra-national projects.

The exit of Great Britain from the EU has historic dimensions. It was brought about by the EU’s political classes and has inflicted heavy damage on Europe. We respect Brexit as the sovereign decision of the British citizens to leave the EU.

2.3 Lobbyism, Corruption and Self-enrichment

Due to a lack of proximity to the citizens and a lack of transparency of EU institutions with wide-ranging regulatory power and discretion over potent financial means, a machinery of officialdom with more than 25,000 lobbyists has been established at the control points of the EU. These attempt to exert influence on political decisions, oftentimes in the gray area of corruption. The effect upon the Brussels bureaucracy occurs with frightening ease, at times the guidelines and draft statutes being drawn up directly by the lobbyists. The measures aimed, after countless scandals, at regulating lobbying are only eye-wash.

Even before realization of the necessary EU reform measures, we demand an obligatory lobby register in which appears each contact with lobbyists and which is to be published unedited. Besides complete transparency, we demand definite duties and corresponding penalties for all EU functionaries and co-workers. We want to appropriately penalize bribery, corruption and subventions fraud with automatic loss of eligibility for election and the ability to place public officials under observation. In addition, we require the unrestricted publication of members’ and functionaries’ outside activities as well as a three year interim period for rotation between politics and business (“Revolving-door principle”).

European Election Program, 9th European Parliament 2019, Europe of Nations

European Election Program

Program of the Alternative für Deutschland for Election

     of the 9th European Parliament 2019

A Europe of Nations

2.2.1 Dexit – Exit as Last Resort

Should our fundamental reform measures of the EU’s existing system not be realized in a suitable period of time, we maintain that a German exit, or an orderly undoing of the European Union and the founding of a new European economic and interests community, will be necessary. The decision concerning Dexit will be obtained from the citizens, as is self-evident  according to our model of direct democracy.

EU – Centralism and Bureaucracy

The political players of Europe have built up the European Union into a monstrous apparatus of authorities and administration. Twelve EU institutions with 44,000 EU officials and 11,000 employees, personnel costs of over eight billion euros, 24 EU agencies with a number (not made public) of co-workers and service providers such as interpreters and experts. The members, commissioners, officials and special EU employees receive uncommonly high compensation and privileges, from paradisaical pension entitlements to tax-free allowances. For example, there are presently some 4,000 EU officials earning more than the German Chancellor (290,000 € gross per year).

By reforming the EU, we wish to shrink the inflated authorities apparatus and stop the disproportionate care and feeding of EU bureaucrats. The filling of the offices and functions of EU institutions should be the result of aptitude and ability, not party membership.

The renunciation of the unanimity principle and the introduction of a majority principle is not coherent with our concept of the European Union. The majority principle annuls the sovereignty of the states.

Abolish EU Parliament

We want to abolish the un-democratic EU parliament with its presently privileged 751 members.We see the law-giving competence as belonging exclusively to the national states, although we favor an intensification of inter-state cooperation of member countries and the conclusion of multilateral state treaties. Not centralism and leading around by the nose, but a cooperation of partners guarantees sustained prosperity and peace.

A New European Supreme Court as Supra-national Court of Arbitration

By the re-ordering of the European Union we want to create, in place of previous EU organs, an organizational structure which corresponds to the organization of other interstate federations. The specifics of the organizational structure are to be regulated in multilateral treaties.

We want an end to the incursion of the European Court of Justice [EuGH] into the sovereignty of the national states. With the abolition of the EU’s law-making competence, the primacy of the German basic law and national statutes is to be reconstructed. A new EuGH should provide for the duties of a supra-national court of arbitration. The judges of the new EuGH should be elected from the leading magistrates of the national states.