Freie Wähler on Europe

The Free Voters reject shared debt among EU states. The EU should once again be barred from borrowing. The debt created through the recovery fund should end as quickly as possible.

The EU took on shared debt for an aid fund. The Free Voters want to end this. The EU should no longer be allowed to take on its own debt. Countries should not be liable for the debts of others.

The platform wants to return to the earlier ban on EU borrowing. The recovery fund is the program for which the EU first borrowed jointly on a large scale after the COVID-19 pandemic. The party links this to its demand for responsible budget policy in Germany and the EU.

The Free Voters want to deepen EU cooperation with its neighboring regions and promote reforms toward democracy, the rule of law and a market economy there. Accession negotiations with Turkey, by contrast, are to end for good. The platform names a privileged partnership as the new goal.

The EU should work more closely with its neighbor countries. It should promote democracy and the rule of law there. Turkey should not join the EU. The talks about joining should end forever. There should be a special partnership instead.

Neighborhood policy is to back human rights and domestic reforms with incentive programs. The platform names above all Serbia, Albania and Moldova, as well as Georgia and Armenia and the countries of North Africa. With North Africa, a new basis for cooperation is to be found that supports economic development and positions Europe as a buyer of renewable energy such as hydrogen. The platform describes Turkey under Erdogan as an autocratic state that has moved away from Atatürk's secular constitution.