European Christian Democrats: Ukraine is at the top of the agenda

The European Christian Democrats stand for a classic conservative policy: for strict migration rules, more focus on economic than environmental issues and for security – also for Ukraine.

Solidarity with Ukraine is at the top of the election manifesto of the European People’s Party (EPP). The party in the EU Parliament, which includes the CDU and CSU as well as other Christian Democratic and bourgeois-conservative parties from other member states, sees the Russian war of aggression as a wake-up call to which Europe must respond: spend more on defense, buy weapons and equipment together.

Accordingly, the EPP wants to continue to play a leading role in mobilising aid for Ukraine – until the country achieves a victory, as it says.

According to the party’s election manifesto, the long-term goal is a genuine European defense union that complements national armies. Manfred Weber, head of the EPP and the group of the same name in the European Parliament, says the key task in the coming legislative period is to make Europe so strong “that no one can mess with us.”

Even though the CSU politician Weber is the party and parliamentary group leader, the EPP’s top candidate for the EU Commission post is the incumbent Ursula von der Leyen. She was elected by the European delegates at the EPP party congress in Bucharest at the beginning of March.

Strict course in asylum policy

The party played a key role in ensuring that the EU Parliament and member states agreed on a migration pact after years of dispute. This pact envisages shifting asylum procedures to the EU’s external borders.

The EPP goes even further and, according to its election manifesto, also considers procedures in safe third countries such as Rwanda or Niger to be possible. “We want to stop uncontrolled migration so that Europe’s ability to integrate is not overwhelmed,” the party’s text states.

The EU agency Frontex is also to be expanded into a genuine European border and coast guard agency and equipped with more staff and competencies.

Conservative economic and financial policy

In terms of financial policy, joint debt, Eurobonds, are met with resistance in the EPP group, especially among the CDU and CSU MPs. The Corona reconstruction fund NextGenerationEU is considered a one-off exception in the Union. After all, the then CDU Chancellor, Angela Merkel, helped to initiate it in 2020.

The EPP wants to deepen the EU internal market and expand it to include a digital component. An EU Commissioner should only deal with the concerns of small and medium-sized companies and reduce bureaucracy. The EU Commission should regularly check whether regulations are really necessary.

The EPP sees competition from Asia as the biggest external challenge to Europe’s economic model. It wants to contain the risks of excessive dependence. According to the election manifesto, the EU’s trade deficit with China had doubled within two years to a record level of 390 billion euros by 2022.

Distance to environmental issues

According to its programme, the EPP supports the “Green Deal” – i.e. von der Leyen’s plan to restructure Europe sustainably. By the middle of the century, the EU does not want to emit more greenhouse gases than it saves.

The EU Parliament passed most of the relevant laws with the support of the EPP. In recent months, however, the Christian Democratic group has slowed down environmental laws and thus distanced itself from the flagship project of its lead candidate. Without a competitive economy, there can be no sustainable climate protection, the election manifesto states.

Party and parliamentary group leader Weber calls the de facto ban on combustion engines in new cars from 2035 a serious mistake that will be reversed. The election program calls for more technology for the mobility of the future – not bans.

And it opposes “excessive requirements and additional burdens for farmers”. With the support of the EPP, the EU has relaxed environmental regulations in response to the farmers’ protests.

Even the wolf appears in the EPP election manifesto: In it, the party calls for new rules for the management of large predator populations – if the populations become too large, animals should also be killed.