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L'Osservatore europeo

Germany in Europe

At the outset of the new century, Europe stands at a historic crossroads. The successful expansion of the European Union, the strengthening of the European Economic and Monetary Union and the furthering of European integration are the greatest challenges of our time.

European integration is the most important and most successful political project in the history of Europe. It is the foundation for peace, safety and stability among the member states and generates prosperity, growth and employment for Germany and the European Union. Therefore the Social Democratic Party will continue to do everything it can to advance the development of this integration process in the 21st Century.

There is no alternative to Europeanisation and the continued integration of Europe. The future progress of politics in Germany will especially depend on our approach to this issue.

That is why the SPD supports the successful policy on Europe of Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his government to safeguard the interests of our country. The long-term welfare of our nation can best be ensured in a united Europe.

We view Europe as a societal model based on the ideals of the Enlightenment and Humanism. The European model of social democracy embodies for us the combination of freedom and solidarity, the merging of individual and society, the melding of productivity and responsibility.

The objectives of the social democrats are:


Ensure prosperity and increase employment


Promote innovation and education - Modernise the European social model


Advance environmental and consumer protection


Guarantee domestic security


Strengthen human rights


Strengthen foreign and security policy


Live up to Europe’s global responsibility


Unite Europe


Assign the tasks clearly


Shape Europe’s future democratically

This is how we will make our contribution toward concentrating our forces and better sharing the tasks at hand in the age of globalisation.

This is how we will make our contribution toward ensuring and furthering the success of the European Union.

This is how we will make our contribution toward reforming and expanding the European Union.

This is how we will make our contribution toward winning the hearts and minds of the German people for the European idea.


Ensure prosperity and increase employment

The national economies in the European Union are growing again. Unemployment is steadily decreasing. This is the result of a change in policies, on both the national and European levels, that has been brought about by the Social Democrat-led governments in the European Union. Together with our partners, we have put into place balanced overall economic policies, and have given employment policy the emphasis it deserves, also on the European level. Thanks to improved co-ordination on the European level, we have been able to harmonise our economic, finance and employment policies, and this is now coming to fruition. The result has been a decided improvement in economic and financial policies and the conditions necessary for the success of the European Economic and Monetary Union, which will make Europe the world’s most dynamic and competitive economic region.

Introduce the Euro successfully

The European monetary union is nearing its completion: Beginning on January 1, 2002, citizens will make their daily purchases with Euro coins and banknotes. We are aware that many of our citizens anticipate the introduction of the new currency with trepidation. We are convinced that their unease will give way to enthusiasm once they have experienced the advantages the Euro brings to their everyday lives. A successful Euro will become the symbol of European community and will give added impetus to European integration.

The Euro has already passed its first test on the international financial markets. The citizens of Europe can count on the continued stability of the Euro in the future.

The assurance of a stable Euro lies not only with the European Central Bank, but also in the commitment on the part of the currency union’s member countries to economic and financial policies that promote stability. With the uncompromising consolidation of the federal budget, through social prudence and clear priorities in our public investments, we are doing our part for a stable Euro. The Euro will stimulate competition within the European Union. This is another reason we will hold fast to our concept of structural reforms and continue to modernise business and society in Germany. These are the prerequisites for growth and employment in the monetary union.

Take advantage of the single European market and monetary union to strengthen growth and employment

In the world of global business, the Euro will increase Europe’s attractiveness as a place for investment. It will strengthen Europe’s position in international markets and enhance the stability of the global financial system, benefiting the economies of all nations. Europe wants to take advantage of the many benefits of the common currency for economic growth and employment. To do so, we need a fully functional single European market, just as this market needs a stable Euro for its success. We must continue to systematically strengthen the single European market. This means that the member states must take seriously their commitment to opening up domestic markets for electricity, natural gas and postal services within the time frame agreed upon, in order to avoid distortion of competition. We will continue to see to it that the necessary adjustments are made in a socially responsible manner. The single European market and joint currency also call for more co-operation on tax policies, particularly taxes on businesses, capital gains and energy input, and on the harmonisation of value-added and sales tax, as well as a single capital market.

We support the Lisbon resolutions of the European heads of state and government to create the conditions necessary for full employment within the European Union. Making these agreements a reality requires courageous reforms on the national level and a great willingness to work together, also in the area of wage policy. In the single European market, with its single currency, wages can no longer be oriented exclusively on national economic indicators. For this reason, labour and management organisations in the Euro area must renew their dialogue regarding wage policies. We want to further develop policies conducive to more economic growth in Europe by working even more closely with our partners in all areas relevant to business. That goes for research and development policies as well as education and social policies.


Promote innovation and education – Modernise the European social model

Globalisation and the transition from an industrial society to a knowledge-and-information-based society present tremendous challenges to politics, business and society in general. The European response is a comprehensive reform package intended to help Europe become the world’s most dynamic economic region within the next ten years, an economic region with a secure job market and a high degree of social cohesion. We advocate the modernisation of the European economic and social model. Above all, this requires making our social security systems fit for the future. Since the meeting in Lisbon, the objective of creating the conditions necessary for full employment is once again on the European agenda. We know this will not be easy to achieve, but our policies are geared consistently toward this goal on both the European and national levels. We have already seen initial successes. For example, we have moved closer to the goal agreed upon together with our partners of increasing employment rate to 70 % by 2010.

Within the next ten years, Europe should once again be the world’s leader in the area of research and development. To this end, expenditures within the EU must be more strongly oriented on the requirements of innovation and modernisation. We must continue to promote research in Europe, consistently offering top scientists and businesses more incentive to work in Europe and to co-operate with European research institutes. We must offer young scientists better career opportunities. We must also further harmonise the legal conditions for research in Europe and facilitate occupational mobility for researchers.

In order to achieve these ambitious goals, we must make considerable investments in education and training in Europe. We need more mobility and openness on all levels of public education and professional training, and better conditions for geographic mobility during education and training. Mutual recognition of qualifications among institutions of higher learning and in the area of occupational training programs still involves much too much red tape. We also need to develop a broad network of European colleges and universities to improve the region’s chances in the increasingly competitive international educational environment. In our Alliance for Jobs, we have agreed upon numerous measures to promote education and professional training. Funding for science and research has been increased considerably in order to promote innovation. Our reform of the student loan programme is another contribution toward establishing more equal opportunity in the education system. At the same time, it helps facilitate mobility for German students wishing to study in other countries of the EU.

The transformation to a knowledge-and-information society demands of our citizens a high degree of flexibility. Economic efficiency and social integration must be must be balanced sensibly. We must not allow the transition to a knowledge society to exacerbate social conflicts. All of our citizens must continue to enjoy unhindered access to knowledge and information.

Public institutions of education and training play an important role here, as do those institutions concerned with occupational training and continuing education. They all must embrace the emerging concepts of life-long learning and find specific ways to employ them in their task.


Advance environmental and consumer protection

Sustainable agriculture and effective consumer protection

We advocate a new agricultural policy in the European Union, one that places the highest priority on consumer protection and the quality of the food we eat, and one which is based on the principle of sustainability.

The BSE crisis is also a crisis of the European Union’s common agricultural policy (CAP). Only fundamental reform can restore credibility to and trust in this policy. To this end, we must take advantage of the up-coming review of EU agricultural policies. We advocate redefining the goals of the EU's common agricultural policy.

We need comprehensive consumer protection embracing high production standards and transparency in the food production industry, covering the production of food, its marketing and its distribution to consumers. In the area of food standards, clear labelling guidelines for quality and place of origin must be anchored in law. Only thorough inspection and consistent labelling can protect the consumers and regain their trust, ultimately enabling them to make better-informed purchasing decisions.

We want animals to be treated humanely. We advocate environmentally sound and natural methods of production, also in conventional agriculture. Organic farming must be strengthened and its market potential expanded. It must be economically worthwhile to produce healthy food, and farmers must be given a fair chance to compete on the marketplace. Rural areas and their infrastructure must be protected as places to work, live, play and relax.

The use of tax money for a misguided agricultural policy in the EU food-production industry must be put to an end. Instead, financial support for agriculture must be dependent upon compliance with criteria for protecting consumers, the environment and animals. Overall, assistance for agriculture must be restructured in favour of sustainable development for rural areas. In the future, the principle of common agricultural policies should be co-financing. Remuneration of ecological services and the creation of alternative sources of income, e.g. in the production of sustainable resources and energy crops, in the use of renewable sources of energy and in nature-oriented tourism, must be fostered and promoted.

Advance environmental and climate protection

Conserving the environment and the climate are central tasks for the future, and we can master them in close co-operation with our partners in European Union and the rest of the world.

The European Union must once again become the world leader in the areas of environmental technology, environmental standards and environmentally friendly products. A consistent and congruous European environmental policy will strengthen the competitiveness of Europe’s companies, making it an even more important employment factor. The ecological component of taxation policies must be substantially expanded within the European Union. In particular, this calls for the harmonisation of the taxation of earnings derived from energy sales.

The SPD stands for a significant change in energy policy in which renewable resources receive a high priority. This is of the essence if we are to avoid a climatic catastrophe. With our national climate protection programme, the federal government of Germany will fulfil the entire scope of our obligations as defined in the Kyoto Protocol. The SPD will continue to urge the United States to fulfil the entire scope of its obligations as well. Through demonstrative pioneering development, the European Union can encourage other countries to fulfil their respective obligations and earn the trust of developing nations, inspiring them also to take an active part through climate protection efforts of their own. Now and in the future, we will continue to use our strength to press for making climate conservation an obligatory task for all contracting nations, leading to real and wide-reaching reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.


Guarantee domestic security

For the SPD, one of the special challenges of the European unification process is guaranteeing domestic security. We believe security can better be guaranteed in the expanded European Union than on our own.

It is the goal of social democratic European policy to maintain and further develop the European region as a zone of freedom, safety and the rule of law.

The SPD believes: The open borders in the European Union should benefit our citizens, not organised crime.

Political co-operation will allow for more certainty of justice. By including the acceding countries in the Union-wide effort to fight organised and international crime, we can also considerably improve the potential for co-operation within the German police and justice systems. It will then be possible to carry out faster, more effective and more cost-efficient law enforcement efforts across national borders.

To this end, we should expand existing instruments such as the European police authority EUROPOL and create new forms of co-operation. The SPD therefore advocates


expanding EUROPOL into an operative European police force, equipped with executive authority modelled after that of the federal bureau of investigation (Bundeskriminalamt);


establishing a European public prosecution authority to work together with the national criminal prosecution authorities and to support the activities of EUROPOL;


creating a joint European border police force to ensure effective protection against organised crime and illegal immigration on the future outer borders of the European Union;


removing border controls to the nations acceding to the EU only after the protection standards of the European Union have been met;


expanding legal co-operation in the area of criminal justice, including approximating sentences for international and trans-border crimes;


guarnteeing the right of all citizens to appeal measures taken by EUROPOL to the European Court of Justice;


ensuring action by the European Parliament to guarantee comprehensive control mechanisms in this area of vital basic rights.


Strengthen human rights

European policy must be a policy of and for the citizens of the European Union. The rights of the people must remain the focus of all our integration and policy efforts. For this reason, the SPD expressly welcomes the fact that the federal government was instrumental in the success of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Against the backdrop of the various European national constitutions and the diversity of views regarding basic human rights, this Charter makes an important contribution to the European identity by endowing the citizens of the European Union with a set of ideals they can identify with.

European social democracy has successfully ensured that basic economic and social rights are anchored in the Charter on an even footing with basic freedoms and civil rights.

For the SPD, it is important that


Europe, as a society of shared values, not only guarantees basic freedoms and civil rights, but also ensures that even those people suffering under difficult living conditions can play an active part in European society, according to their abilities and capabilities. This includes the realisation of political and societal participation and the creation of the economic prerequisites for a humane existence;


the Charter of Fundamental Rights is adopted into the European treaties and made legally binding. We must not content ourselves with a mere proclamation ceremony;


once the Charter has been integrated into the treaties, citizens in the European Union have the possibility of lodging a complaint or making an appeal to the European Court of Justice if they see their rights endangered by institutions of the EU. The indivisibility and mutual dependency of all basic rights described in the Charter must be made real and palpable to the citizens of Europe;


the Charter defines the foundation of the values of the European Union and that the paramount importance of basic and human rights is made visible for those who live in the European Union. On the basis of the Charter, comprehensive protection for minorities and protection against discrimination must be guaranteed, in particular discrimination based on skin colour, ancestry, religion or philosophy, disability, age or sexual orientation;


these basic rights must also be guaranteed for nationals of third countries living in the European Union;


in order to build up step by step a zone of freedom, security and the rule of law in Europe, it is necessary to establish conditions ensuring the free movement of people, a joint policy for immigration and political asylum, and protection for the rights of nationals of third countries;


the elaboration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights stands at the beginning of the discussion of a European Constitution. The Charter of Fundamental Rights should be placed at the forefront of the future constitution so that there is no question about the values that are of central importance to the European Union.


Strengthen foreign and security policy

A common foreign and security policy for the EU advances European integration and strengthens the negotiating position of the European Union. It is consistent with the needs of the new Europe and the conditions of globalisation, under which Europe can assert itself most effectively as a politically united power. And it is the prerequisite for a viable, long-term transatlantic partnership of equals, for closer co-operation between Europe and Russia, and for a more concerted presence of the EU in international organisations such as the OSCE and the UN.

A strong role for Europe in the alliance and a stronger security policy role on the part of the EU will strengthen NATO. The transatlantic partnership remains the foundation of our security in Europe. NATO is still the decisive political institution that binds the Euro-Atlantic community of democratic nations together.

Involving Russia in European security structures is a prerequisite for stability and security in the Euro-Atlantic region.

The EU has made the necessary decisions, particularly in light of its experience in the Balkans, to make Europe an important player in foreign and security policy matters. The EU must be capable of effective action in order to accept responsibility for stability and safety in the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond. The further development of the CFSP must be on the agenda of the next Intergovernmental Conference. In the mid-term, we must strive to bring this area of policy into the jurisdiction of the European Union.


The SPD advocates the development of CFSP as a comprehensive security concept for the European Union. It must encompass political, military, economic, social and ecological elements, linking together European foreign, security and development policy, and strengthening the capacity to prevent conflicts. For the political and strategic execution of crisis-management tasks, the entire spectrum of diplomatic activities, humanitarian aid and economic measures must be made viable, extending even to non-military police actions and peace-keeping and peace-enforcing military operations. In the future, the EU must also be capable of acting militarily independently in the area of crisis management in cases where NATO as a whole does not become active.


A conflict-prevention policy must be developed for the EU that takes into account the entire spectrum of needs and demands for successful crisis prevention and civilian and military crisis management. Building on the experience of the EU in the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, this policy must be devised multi-laterally and for the long term, and its objective must be the promotion of democracy, civilian society and the rule of law, market economy and social security, as well as disarmament and confidence-building in (potential) crisis regions. The co-operation among the partners of the EU in the Mediterranean region is a pioneering example.


The commitment of the EU within the framework of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe must be continued in this manner on the highest level. However, the assistance provided through the Stability Pact must be seen as helping others to help themselves. Sustainable peace and the development of South-Eastern Europe will require more than outside help. It will require considerable effort of their own and the willingness to solve conflicts peacefully. Only in this way can the goal of gradually integrating all the countries of South-Eastern Europe into the European structures be achieved.


In addition to the establishment of permanent political and military decision-making structures within the EU, crisis management procedures must be developed and instituted, both in the military (rapid deployment forces, core capacity for crisis management) and civilian (police, civil administration, civil protection and disaster management, strengthening the rule of law) areas. The federal armed forces (Bundeswehr) are to a great degree already integrated in the European sense, and have done an excellent job of crisis management in the Balkans. The implementation of the planned reform of the armed forces will bring further adjustments to the structure of the troops. The Bundeswehr will become more effective and more efficient as it continues to fulfil its peace-keeping mission.


Live up to Europe’s global responsibility

Shaping the face of globalisation

Due to the accelerated pace of globalisation, many of the problems in the world’s economy can only be solved through joint international efforts. The SPD-led federal government therefore adheres to a global regulatory policy that sets an internationally binding framework for world trade, international competition, the international financial system and global protection of the environment and natural resources.

Our goal of enabling all people, everywhere in the world, to live a life of dignity and to take advantage of the opportunities of globalisation is not only an obligation demanded by solidarity, it is also in our own best interests as members of the global community.

The fight against poverty

With the Cologne Debt Relief Initiative in the summer of 1999, the SPD-led government laid the cornerstone for the chance for a better life in the developing nations. Debts would be written off if national strategies for fighting poverty were worked out in co-operation with the local population. This is meant to ensure that the remissions actually benefit the poorest members of the population most of all.

At the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, the heads of state and government set the goal of reducing by half the number of people living in absolute poverty by the year 2015. The federal government of Germany supports this ambitious goal with a national action plan.

The European Commission and its member states will have to make a tremendous effort. Already today, more than 55% of the funds earmarked world-wide for public development co-operation comes from the EU and its member countries. That is a great achievement. But we must do more.

Increased integration of the countries in the South and East

The countries in the South and East need to be adequately integrated into world trade. Their interests must be better addressed within the world trade system by improving their participation in the structures of the WTO. For many of these countries, the EU is the most important trade partner. The EU must guarantee the poorest countries free access to our markets. The planned opening of EU markets for the 48 poorest developing countries is a first step in the right direction, but it still calls for an excessively long transition period before the markets are fully open for certain products such as sugar, rice and bananas. Within the framework of the WTO, tariffs and trade barriers for semi-finished products must be scaled back, and at the same time social and ecological minimum standards concerning world trade must be more strongly anchored.

Integrating the nations of the South and East equally into global structures for political decision-making is of great importance. Strengthening the ability of developing nations to take effective action and helping emerging nations to safeguard their legitimate interests on a global scale represent an essential contribution to world peace, too.

Provisions for peace policy and crisis prevention

Development policy means preserving the peace. Our experience in development assistance has shown that it is essential to support people in their efforts to solve conflicts peacefully on their own and to identify potential crises early on.

Technical, financial and personal development assistance should be geared toward dismantling the structures that promote and aggravate conflicts. The SPD hails the fact that crisis prevention has become an integral component of all development assistance programmes.

We must continue to fortify this new civilian instrument for serving the peace. On-site peacekeeping specialists make an important contribution to peace by building confidence, arbitrating conflicts, reconciling differences and aiding reconstruction. With its decision to expand civilian capabilities for preventing civil crises, the EU has taken an important step toward further strengthening European development assistance.

Sustainability as one of Europe’s global responsibilities

Europe’s global responsibility must contribute to ensuring and sustaining the necessities of life for future generations. The catastrophic effects of global climate change are taking their toll especially in the countries of the South. In the future, however, we too, in the industrialised world, will be increasingly affected. Europe must live up to its global environmental responsibility and assume a leading role – among other things, by reducing emissions of CO2 and by promoting renewable energies in the North and South.

EU development assistance must become more effective and more efficient. To this end, important resolutions were met during Germany’s presidency of the EU Council. The federal government of Germany initiated the elaboration of an EU development assistance policy and played an important role in its elaboration. Still, important tasks remain: The Commission must ensure that the earmarked funds soon begin to flow and that high quality is guaranteed. Coherence, simple procedures and quality assurance are essential criteria to be adhered to.

In shaping the face of globalisation, Europe needs many partners – both governments and civilians – because the challenges facing the world today can only be solved by working together. Non-governmental organisations perform an important task. Their abilities and expertise must be intensively exploited, just as the business and technical-organisational potential of the business community must also be engaged.

Sustainability is required not only in the areas of the environment and development policy. In order to ensure that future generations can live in dignity, we must begin today to orient our entire national and international political efforts toward the objective of fighting poverty and increasing sustainability.


Unite Europe

More than thirty years ago, Willy Brandt’s policy toward Eastern Europe laid the cornerstone for overcoming the division of our continent. Today, the SPD faces the task of completing his historic achievement by welcoming the countries of Central and Eastern Europe into the European Union.

Politically and economically, the expansion of the EU to include the Eastern European nations will benefit both the acceding nations and the current members of the European Union. The European Union and the candidates for membership share a common attachment to the values and objectives of democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights. The conflicts and wars in the Balkans prove the fundamental importance of the European integration process for peace, security and stability in all of Europe. The expansion of the EU will also provide decided advantages in the fight against international crime and protection again illegal immigration.

The expansion of the European Union will create the world’s largest single market. The global competitiveness of the EU will be strengthened, because the acceding nations are growth markets. In Germany, as one of the most important economic partners of the Central and East European acceding countries, trade with Central and Eastern Europe already guarantees many jobs.

The EU is prepared to take on the new members: During the German presidency, the European Council, at its meeting in Berlin in March, 1999, laid the financial groundwork for the eastern expansion of the EU. The Treaty of Nice from December, 2000, ensures that the EU will remain capable of making decisions and taking action after the expansion has been completed. Additional reforms must follow.

Now it is up to the candidate states to press on with their preparations for membership so they can take advantage of the opportunity being offered them. Up to now, these countries have succeeded remarkably in fulfilling the difficult requirements for membership and are well on their way. They are sticking to their course and shouldering the financial burden of restructuring.

In difficult areas such as agriculture, transportation and environmental protection, transition periods leading up to the full conferral of community rights will be unavoidable. Special risks may also arise due to the large discrepancy in prosperity and personal income between the old and new members. Therefore, as was the case with previous EU expansions, transitional periods will be necessary in the area of free movement of labour, and especially in the sensitive area of freedom to provide services. Particularly in the border regions, the necessary structural change will present special challenges.

The expansion of the European Union must not be allowed to lead to new divisions within Europe. Close co-operation in partnership with neighbouring countries and regions such as Russia, the Ukraine and the Balkans are decisive prerequisites for political stability on our continent. The expansion of the Union must therefore also benefit the new neighbours of the EU.

Therefore, the SPD advocates in particular,


advancing the expansion negotiations quickly and carefully, so that those countries which have made the most progress can take part in the next elections to the European Parliament in the year 2004;


agreeing upon seven-year transition periods in the especially sensitive areas of free movement of labour and services. This will on the one hand offer a high degree of protection against distortion of the labour market, but will on the other hand allow flexible structuring and quick reactions to changing general conditions;


finding suitable and reasonable solutions early on for the special problems of the border regions in order to ensure their competitiveness and increase their attractiveness as places to do business;


instituting a comprehensive information policy to encourage citizens to take part in the discussion about the opportunities and challenges of EU expansion;


that the EU continue to take a leading role in advancing the political and economic stability of the nations of South-Eastern Europe;


further deepening our relationships with the other European countries, e.g. Russia and the Ukraine, on the basis of partnership, so that all of Europe will become a region of political stability and prosperity.


Assign the tasks clearly

The division of tasks that has evolved historically among the European Union and its member states is no longer suitable to the requirements of the 21st century. The member states – and in Germany also the state and communal governments – have forfeited political manoeuvrability, although in many areas more competent decisions could be made on their levels. On the other hand, the European Union does not yet possess the competence necessary to protect its interests on the international level or to ensure inner security.

The present system for distributing tasks and assigning responsibilities lacks transparency and clarity. For this reason it is often difficult to recognise which political level is responsible for decisions that have a direct effect on citizens’ everyday life. The legitimacy of political action on the European level is thus often questioned.

For this reason the SPD welcomes the fact that the federal government succeeded in Nice in convincing its partners of the necessity of more precisely defining the division of competencies and jurisdiction among the EU and its member states, in keeping with the principle of subsidiarity, at the EU reform conference scheduled for the year 2004. Europe’s citizens must be able to recognise easily exactly which entity is responsible for which policies. In addition, clearer and more transparent decision paths between the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament are needed, and they too must be easier for citizens to understand.

Therefore, in adherence to the principle of civic proximity and solidarity between the member states of the EU, the SPD advocates,


delineating, through clear assignment of tasks and in a comprehensible manner, the political responsibilities of the European level and of the member states respectively. The right to grant new competencies to the EU must remain with the member states. The division and assignment of responsibilities among the federal, state and communal levels is and must remain a question of domestic policy;


taking precautions against a creeping transfer of competencies to the European level. Cross-section competencies, e.g. single market competencies and rules on competition, must not be allowed to undermine the jurisdiction of the member states;


returning to the national level of jurisdiction those tasks that can more suitably be performed by the member states, in keeping with the principle of subsidiarity, and provided this is not detrimental to the single market. This applies especially to the competencies of the EU in the areas of agricultural and structural policy, in order to expand the leeway for independent regional and structural policy by the member states;


ensuring that the member states retain the flexibility and structural competence to provide for public and social security;


strengthening, through additional communitisation, the EU’s ability to take action in the areas of foreign and security policy, inner security and immigration, because individual members states are decreasingly capable of effectively promoting their interests on the international stage;


improving the transparency of decision paths on the European level by reforming the Commission to become a strong European executive instance, by further strengthening the rights of the European Parliament by means of increased co-decision and full budgetary authority, and by expanding the Council to become a Chamber of European Nations.


Shape Europe’s future through democracy

Ten years ago, no one knew what Europe would look like today. And today, no one knows what Europe will look like ten years hence. But then as now, one thing is true: The future of Europe lies in the hands of its citizens. This is why we never tire of advocating a good future for Europe.

We in Europe can reach our political goals together better than any one nation could do on its own. Often, all it takes is merely co-operating with our neighbours across international borders. We must begin to think harder about the kind of environment and the atmosphere in which the tasks of the future can best be achieved.

This is not a matter of technical questions, but a matter of democracy and participation.

Europe urgently needs the participation, the critique and agreement, the discussion and debate of its citizens.

The Social Democratic Party of Germany will continue to encourage public debate, both in Germany and in Europe as a whole, concerning the political goals of the European Union.

The Social Democratic Party of Germany will also continue to encourage public debate, both in Germany and in Europe as a whole, concerning the structural and decision-making mechanisms of the European Union.

Everyone is called upon to take part in this public debate: Citizens and governments, state and society, the European Parliament and national parliaments, the EU Commission and European Council, parties and organisations, cities and communities.

We intend to enhance and discuss the constitutional basis of the national parliaments and the European parliament with respect to genuine, all-encompassing parliamentarisation. In this debate concerning the basic principles of a European constitution, it is our objective


to incorporate the Charter of Basic Rights into the treaties, establishing them as an additional step toward a European constitution;


to create a European system with a balance of power between EP, Council and Commission, in keeping with the principles of democratic legitimacy, efficiency and transparency;


to simplify the treaties and decision-making procedures, making them more democratic;


to clarify the division of tasks and responsibilities between the European Union, the member nations, the states and communities;


to create the basis for an effective foreign policy for the European Union.

This debate, which will culminate in an Intergovernmental Conference in the year 2004, is not another pre-condition for the expansion of the EU. The governments and societies of the acceding countries are expressly included in this process on the basis of the Nice accords.

We are and remain confident about the future of Europe:


In ten years we will live in a Europe that is larger than it is today, and that is more closely linked than it is today.


In ten years we will live in a Europe that possesses a constitution of its own.


In ten years we will live in a Europe with a single currency.


In ten years we will live in a Europe of shared values, and with a diversity of languages and cultures.

We will work together with our affiliated parties in Europe toward these goals.

The SPD will in the future continue to do its part for a strong and efficient social democratic party in Europe. The more important the European Union becomes, the more important the further development of the SPD will become. The principle "Democracy calls for the right party" is not only true for each member country. It is also valid when it comes to deepening European integration. That’s why the SPD will redouble its efforts to advance communication and understanding within European social democracy regarding basic values, goals, strategic key programmes and current political issues. Only a truly powerful European social democracy will possess the required strength to create and maintain a Europe of peace, of freedom, of prosperity and of social justice.

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