AfD on Europe

The AfD rejects a European health union and wants health policy to remain a national responsibility. It points to EU mistakes during the COVID period, such as vaccine procurement.

The EU plans a health union. The AfD is against it. Germany should decide on health itself. The AfD says the EU made mistakes during COVID.

The platform stresses that under EU law, organizing health care is a matter for member states. Joint vaccine procurement, it says, led to errors and conflicts. The party also opposes uniform EU rules for medical professions and services, as well as approval and testing powers for the EU agency. German quality standards should not be lowered.

The AfD wants Thuringia to keep receiving money from EU funding programs but calls for a fundamental reform. EU programs should serve only the single market and economic structures; projects such as the Green Deal and Fit for 55 should be ended.

The AfD wants to change EU funding a lot. Thuringia should still get EU money. But the money should only help the economy. The AfD wants to end EU climate programs like the Green Deal. Applying for money should be less work.

The platform points out that Germany is the EU's largest net contributor and therefore wants to secure funds from ESF/ESF+, ERDF and EAFRD for Thuringia. The administrative burden of EU-funded programs is to be cut consistently. The AfD rejects programs it sees as enforcing political convictions, such as "Rights and Values." It regards the Green Deal and Fit for 55 as an attack on sectors such as agriculture. The use of funds is to be monitored more strictly.

The AfD wants to reform EU procurement law so that public contracts can more often go preferentially to regional and national firms. This is meant to strengthen the local economy.

The AfD wants to change the rules for public contracts. Local firms should get preference more often. Today the cheapest offer from the whole EU often has to win. That should change.

The thresholds above which a contract must be tendered EU-wide would be raised. The rules would become more flexible so that the cheapest bid from across the EU does not automatically win. According to the platform, the aim is a stronger regional economy.

The AfD considers the EU a failure and wants to found a new European economic and interest community of sovereign nation-states. It rejects an EU superstate and says a referendum should decide on Europe's future.

The AfD says the EU has failed. It wants a new union of states in Europe. Each state should decide for itself. The states should work together mainly on trade. In the end, the people should vote on this.

According to the platform, the EU has moved away from the original idea of a common market of self-determining states and is pursuing a centralized state without a democratic basis. The AfD's guiding vision is a "Europe of fatherlands." In its view, only democratic nation-states can secure popular sovereignty, the rule of law, national identity and prosperity. It cites EU farm policy as an example of negative effects and wants to strengthen the independence of agriculture by pushing back Brussels' influence.