CDU on Europe

The CDU wants to represent the interests of Saarland's industry, trade unions and mid-sized businesses at the EU level. According to the platform, shifting the economy to climate neutrality can only succeed within the European Green Deal.

The CDU wants to speak up in Europe for companies in Saarland. The economy should become climate neutral. That means it should no longer harm the climate. The CDU says this only works together in Europe. Companies should get rules they can rely on.

The platform makes structural change a top priority handled personally by state premier Tobias Hans. No one is supposed to be left behind in this change. The state government is to push in Brussels and Berlin for planning certainty, realistic requirements and protection from unfair competition. The reasoning given is the importance of a competitive industry that employs many people.

The CDU wants to push for Europe-wide fiscal consolidation and strict stability rules for the euro. It rejects a debt union. It calls on the European Central Bank to fulfill its mandate of price stability.

The CDU wants a stable euro. Countries in Europe should take on less debt. The CDU does not want permanent shared debt in Europe. The European Central Bank should make sure prices do not rise sharply.

The platform points to many people's worries about rising inflation and names energy and raw material costs, supply bottlenecks and ECB monetary policy as causes. The CDU wants to use the means available to a federal state to advocate budget consolidation across Europe and strong stability criteria. In its view, a debt union would permanently shift financing costs onto Germany and thus indirectly onto Saarland. The platform sees the EU as a shared roof under which municipalities, states and member countries carry out their tasks on their own responsibility.

The CDU wants EU money to flow only when member states respect rule-of-law principles. At the same time, the division of powers set out in the EU treaties is to be preserved, especially for social legislation and the German states' authority over education and culture.

Some EU countries no longer follow important rule-of-law rules. The CDU wants this: Only countries that follow the rules get EU money. But the EU should not decide everything. The German states should keep deciding about schools and culture.

The platform voices concern about the erosion of rule-of-law principles in some member states. The CDU wants to advocate in Brussels and at the federal level for linking funding to these principles. It combines this with a call for financial stability in every member country. Social legislation and the states' authority over education and culture are not to shift to the EU.

The CDU wants to develop Saarland's Frankreichstrategie (France Strategy) into a broader internationalization strategy. Cooperation with France is to grow at all levels, and the state is to move closer to the organization of French-speaking countries.

Saarland works closely with France. The CDU wants to expand this cooperation. Saarland should also connect more with other countries in the world. Citizens can share their wishes on a participation platform.

The new strategy is to be guided by people's everyday lives, the needs of companies and the capacity of the education system. The participation platform for the France Strategy will continue so that citizens' concerns keep feeding into the process. The state government is to actively support Saarland's candidacy with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, presented in 2021. The platform points to binational institutions in the state and to the cross-border cooperation committee created by the Treaty of Aachen.

The CDU wants to set up a citizens' forum for the Greater Region that can start initiatives and petitions. This is meant to bring European policy closer to people's everyday lives.

The CDU wants to create a citizens' forum for the Greater Region. There, citizens can make proposals and start petitions. A petition is a request or demand to politicians. This should bring European policy closer to people.

The forum is to offer a regular opportunity to take part. The CDU sees it as a corrective for political decisions. It is also meant to counter the accusation that Europe has drifted away from citizens' daily lives.

The CDU wants to revive and expand town twinning partnerships and start new ones. It also wants to strengthen the Franco-German and German-Polish youth offices and support the creation of further bilateral youth exchange offices.

Many towns have partner towns in other countries. The CDU wants to bring these partnerships back to life. There should also be new ones. Young people should have more exchange with other countries. For this, the CDU wants to strengthen the youth exchange offices and support new ones.

Together with municipalities, the CDU plans an information and motivation campaign that also points to digital forms of cooperation. The platform treats town twinning as a tool of local European policy. As possible new institutions, it names a German-Israeli and a German-Italian youth office. The reasoning given is that young people should experience the personal value of European exchange, especially as the European idea is viewed more critically.