FDP on Europe

The FDP wants to turn the cooperation with Belgium and the Netherlands that arose during the Covid pandemic into a permanent "Borderless EU" task force. It is to identify obstacles at the border and propose ways to remove them.

NRW works with Belgium and the Netherlands. The FDP wants to make this a permanent working group. The group should find problems at the border. Then it suggests solutions.

The task force is to work with the Euregios and present its proposals at annual government meetings of the three sides. It should also explore joint projects and EU funding options. Examples named include Euregio profile schools, border information points, joint fire and emergency services, disaster protection and binational police teams. Vocational qualifications are to be recognized more easily in border regions, and A1 posting certificates are to be digitized. The FDP also wants to strengthen the state's voice in the EU through the Committee of the Regions.

The FDP wants to increase and permanently secure funding for the German-Dutch youth exchange organization. Ties with the United Kingdom are to grow closer despite Brexit, including through a German-British youth exchange organization.

Young people should get to know other countries. The FDP wants more support for exchange with the Netherlands. There should also be more exchange with the UK. A new youth organization should be set up for that.

The state has funded the Deutsch-Niederländisches Jugendwerk since 2019; this money is to grow and become permanent. The FDP also supports closer cooperation among universities in the border region. It wants to press the federal government for a German-British youth exchange organization. The scholarship program between NRW and the UK is to keep funding stays abroad for school students, university students and trainees.

The FDP wants to push at the federal and EU level for member states that seriously violate the rule of law to automatically receive less EU money. Those who benefit from membership must share its basic principles, the party argues.

The EU has rules about the rule of law. Some countries do not follow them. The FDP wants these countries to get less EU money automatically.

The platform calls the EU's existing rule-of-law mechanism a step in the right direction. The FDP wants to go further and have cuts apply automatically in cases of massive violations. Its reasoning is that member states must protect the Union's basic principles.