AfD on Europe

The AfD wants the EU to stop taking on debt of its own and rejects any pooling of debt. The European Central Bank should limit itself to monetary policy. According to the platform, borrowing and taxation should take place only at the national level.

The AfD wants the EU to stop taking on debt. Germany should not be liable for other countries' debts. The European Central Bank should deal only with money policy. Debt and taxes should be a matter for each country.

The platform regards the ECB's bond purchases and the EU's joint borrowing, for example for the NextGenerationEU fund, as violations of the EU treaties. In the AfD's view, low interest rates and bond purchases drive up prices and hurt savings, company pensions and life insurance. It calls for an immediate stop to EU borrowing and for enforcing the ban on central bank financing of governments. Rescue loans should exist only at the national level. The money freed up is to go into national economic and social programs, mainly infrastructure.

The AfD rejects a European deposit insurance scheme and the banking union. German banks and savers should not be liable for banks in other EU countries. The party wants to strengthen savings banks, cooperative banks and regional development banks.

The AfD does not want shared EU protection for bank deposits. German savers should not pay for foreign banks. Local savings banks and cooperative banks should become stronger. They give loans to local companies.

According to the platform, the planned European deposit insurance scheme would be the EU's largest shared liability pool. The AfD expects losses at banks in Mediterranean countries that German deposits would then have to cover. German banking groups should keep their own protection schemes and limit liability to the national level. The party wants to regain national authority over banking and financial services. It sees regional institutions as the backbone of lending to small and mid-sized businesses, including in Saxony.

The AfD wants regional development funds to stop flowing through the EU and instead be managed regionally or at least nationally. It cites the high administrative costs of EU funding pools and the principle of subsidiarity. Award procedures are to be simplified.

Today the EU hands out a lot of funding for regions. The AfD wants to change that. Saxony or Germany should manage the money themselves. The AfD says: Going through the EU costs too much. Awarding the money should be simpler.

According to the platform, funding pools managed by the EU cause very high administrative costs and contradict the principle of handling tasks at the lowest possible level. The AfD points to the weak finances and debts of Saxon municipalities. Administrative costs should not be shifted to the European level. The party links the demand to the goal of greater autonomy for Saxony.

The AfD wants to change EU procurement law so that public contracts can go preferentially to regional or national bidders. It also wants to deepen cooperation with Poland and the Czech Republic, support German minorities in neighboring countries and open more Saxon liaison offices in Europe.

The AfD wants to change the EU rules for public contracts. Local companies should get contracts more easily. Saxony should work more with Poland and the Czech Republic. German minorities in nearby countries should get support. Saxony should open more offices in other European countries.

The thresholds above which contracts must be tendered EU-wide are to rise, and the cheapest bidder from across the EU would no longer have to win. With its neighbors, the AfD wants closer cooperation on security, environmental protection, health care, infrastructure, culture and science. For German minorities, the platform provides for support of language teaching, schools, kindergartens, newspapers and libraries; the party would grant the same to neighbors in Saxony. In addition to the offices in Brussels, Prague and Wrocław, more are to follow in the medium term, for example in Vienna, Riga, Bolzano, Stockholm and Sibiu or Belgrade.