SPD on Europe

The SPD wants the separation of powers and the rule of law in the European Union to be protected with every available tool. It sees the EU not just as an economic community but also as a community of shared values and solidarity.

The SPD wants to protect the rule of law in the EU. Rule of law means that the state must follow the law too. The EU should use all its tools for this. For the SPD, the EU is more than a market.

The platform calls for a sovereign, dynamic, fair and climate-friendly Europe. The separation of powers and the rule of law are to be protected both inside the EU and toward the outside. The state ministry for federal and European affairs and regional development, set up in 2017, is meant to give Lower Saxony's interests more weight in Brussels.

The SPD wants every young person to be able to take part in a European exchange at least once. It also backs a new exchange program between Germany and the United Kingdom.

The SPD wants more youth exchange in Europe. Every young person should be able to take part once. This can happen at school, in job training or at college. There should also be a new exchange with the United Kingdom.

The exchange should be possible during school, vocational training, free time or university studies. A new program for school and university students from Germany and the United Kingdom is to be created, modeled on the Franco-German Youth Office. The SPD wants to press the federal government on this and push the plan in the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states).