CDU on other topics

The CDU wants to continue the state's existing cooperation with churches, religious communities, and Jewish and Islamic congregations. It argues that society lives on values and that social cohesion cannot be imposed from above.

The state works together with churches and other religions. This includes Jewish and Islamic communities. The CDU wants to keep doing this. It says society needs values.

The platform places this point in the context of social cohesion. A strong state, it says, relies on people's own initiative and responsibility. Volunteering is described as indispensable. The CDU names the Christian view of humanity as the basis of its policy, derives it from Christian, Jewish and humanist traditions, and considers it compatible with the beliefs of people of other faiths or none.

The CDU wants to keep supporting the consumer advice centers and fund an advice service in every county and independent city. Its guiding idea is informed consumers who can decide for themselves when they have transparency and information.

The CDU wants more advice for consumers. Consumers are people who buy things. Every county and every large city should have an advice service. Online advice should grow too. The CDU wants to warn people about fake online shops.

One focus is digital advice as a supplement to existing services; the energy advice offered by the consumer centers is also to grow. The party wants to raise awareness of fake shops, counterfeit products and data security and to push the "SmartSurfer" training program for people over 50. At the federal level, it wants internet-connected children's toys to transmit data only if parents or guardians have given explicit consent.

The CDU wants consumers to get information on every stage of production for processed foods, for example through a QR code. It also wants to educate people about best-before dates and organize food inspection more efficiently.

The CDU wants clear information about food. People should see how a product was made. This can work with a QR code. A QR code is an image you scan with your phone. The CDU also wants to explain: much food is still good after the best-before date.

The information is to cover all steps in the making of processed products. The party wants to keep informing the public that food remains edible past its best-before date as long as it is not visibly spoiled. It is examining a merger of the five food inspection offices; the locations would stay, while synergies and efficiency are meant to increase.

The CDU wants to launch a new funding program to renovate sports facilities and make them more energy-efficient. It also wants to bring back a mandatory annual school sports day, expand sports schools and attract major sporting events, including the Olympic Games, to North Rhine-Westphalia.

The CDU wants to renew sports fields and gyms. There should be a new funding program for this. Every school should hold a sports day once a year. The CDU also hopes for Olympic Games in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The "Moderne Sportstätte 2027" program is to follow on from the previous one and also upgrade facilities' energy performance in view of climate targets; the investment pact for sports facilities is to continue. Sports schools are to be improved, and a network of sports-focused primary schools is to be created. The state is to grow as a Paralympic hub. For a bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, the CDU names public acceptance, a multi-region concept, transparent cost planning and lasting infrastructure benefits as conditions.

The CDU wants to launch a state program for rural areas aimed mainly at municipalities with no more than 15,000 residents. The state's existing funding programs for rural areas are to be merged into it. In addition, pilot projects are planned for villages that supply themselves with renewable energy.

The CDU wants a program for areas outside the big cities. It should mainly help small towns. Older programs will be combined in it. Some villages should make their own power from sun or wind.

The program is called "Ländliche Räume mit Zukunft" (Rural Areas with a Future). It is meant to bundle the existing state programs and align them more closely with local needs. Several pilot projects are to create so-called "ReGen smart villages" that, among other things, supply themselves with renewable energy.