MERA25 Election Programme for the 2024 EU Elections
EU Election 2024: Together for European Independence
War, poverty and social inequality, ecological collapse, the rise of anti-democratic forces – in 2024, our society is facing existential crises that are completely unclear as to whether and how they will be overcome. An ambiguity that results from the fact that those who wield power, namely the rich, large companies and politicians who serve them, make decisions behind closed doors. This leads to decisions that prioritise profit over people and the planet. Oligarchic power structures have become the greatest insecurity factor for peace and prosperity in Europe today. MERA25 wants to put an end to these conditions.
Instead, we want the people to take control of our common destiny, not those who only have profit in mind. At MERA25, we believe that it is time for Europe’s people to democratically decide how our economy is run, how public money is spent, how the housing, healthcare and education backlogs are made up, how peace is achieved and, ultimately, what future we want to see. Only together, across borders, can we successfully tackle the urgent challenges of our time, including:
- Growing Inequality: The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer
- Falling Standard of Living: Prices for basic goods have skyrocketed, while there is less and less affordable housing available
- Environmental Disasters and Planetary Heating: Time is running out to stop climate change
- War: We do not want to support wars, no armament spirals, no dangerous logic of military deterrence and no new bloc confrontation
- Genocide in Gaza: Together with the voices of the Palestinian movement and the international community, we denounce Israeli apartheid, genocide and German complicity
- Disenchantment with politics: The loss of trust in state institutions and the political establishment promotes the acceptance of authoritarianism and discrimination against minorities
- Dwindling public services: Public goods are increasingly being privatised and there is no longer an equal and needs-based provision of services
What we are experiencing today is the result of political decisions that favour the few in our society and forget the many. It is therefore not surprising that one in six people in the European Union is considered to be at risk of poverty, while at the same time the number of billionaires has risen to almost 400. This trend is the result of a fatal link between ruling parties and powerful companies whose sole aim is profit.
It is time to say: Enough is enough! An alternative path must be taken that allows people to make their own decisions about their lives. A path that enables an affordable and self-determined life for people in Europe and beyond! As Europeans of diverse backgrounds, we share a peace-loving, deeply internationalist conviction and want to finally be able to live and decide independently!
Here you can find MERA25’s EU Election Programme:
Financial Independence for All
Job guarantee, good wages,
four-day week, lifetime income
We are fighting for fair wages across Europe to reduce inequality and are guided by the welfare state model of strong trade unions and a society without poverty. Our goal is a dignified working life for all with the introduction of a four-day week. By offering a European Job Guarantee, we will create meaningful and dignified employment opportunities outside the private sector in areas such as care work, nursing, nature conservation, culture and popular sports. In addition, we aim to introduce a Europe-wide Universal Living Income of 60% of the median income in the respective countries in the medium term in order to enable everyone to live a dignified and purposeful life free from interference, poverty and exploitation.
Measures Against Inflation and Loss of Purchasing Power
Price cuts for essential goods,
profit brakes for the corporations
To make everyday goods affordable, we want to abolish European Union laws that artificially raise prices (e.g. on the electricity market) and abolish VAT on essential goods (e.g. water, food, medicines, household energy). We will enact legislation that makes it impossible for pharmaceutical companies to keep drug prices high through anti-social patenting. Sectors dominated by a few large corporations will be reformed to eliminate monopolies and oligopolies. Margin controls to prevent excess profits and direct price subsidies in the event of economic shocks due to supply shortages are among the instruments that must be used to react flexibly and appropriately to cost increases.
Green Transformation – Paid for by Climate Polluters
Free public transport, renewable energy supply, organic farming
We have launched an ambitious programme to restore nature and preserve livelihoods. Our Green New Deal for Europe is the only investment programme that combines climate protection, social security and democracy. It includes creating decent green jobs, making all local public transport in Europe free or cheap, supporting companies in switching to climate-neutral production, consistently reorganising the energy supply to be renewable and oriented towards the common good, converting agriculture to organic and animal welfare-oriented methods, enabling healthy nutrition for all and making construction and housing more ecologically sustainable. This green transformation for people should leave no one behind and be paid for by the super-rich. To this end, we will campaign for the introduction of a progressive wealth tax. This solidarity tax will be levied on people who directly or indirectly own net assets of €2 million or more, thus exempting 99% of the European population.
Economic Paradigm Shift: One Person, One Vote
Socialisation of basic goods
(e.g. housing, electricity, heat, water)
Our vision is a world in which people live together freely and without constraints. To get closer to this vision, we want to democratise companies and corporations in the long term. “One person, one vote” must also apply in the world of work. This applies in particular to publicly traded companies. It is not shareholders who create value, but the employees of a company. It should therefore be the employees who make key decisions, such as the choice of management, the distribution of funds and other fundamental decisions that affect the future of the workforce and the company. Sectors and infrastructure in Europe that form natural monopolies, as well as basic goods and supply services for a dignified life (e.g. electricity, heat, water, but also Internet access), will be assigned to the sovereign remit of the state and will be socialised or transferred to democratically managed public ownership where this is not already the case.
Peaceful International Relations
Independence, non-alignment,
peaceful conflict resolution
We want an independent and non-aligned European Union that is committed to global peace. A comprehensive international security framework should replace military blocs and resolve tensions by peaceful means. The Europe we aspire to will ensure social and environmental justice within and between nations, end the dominance of one country over another and maintain peaceful and independent relations with Washington, Moscow and Beijing. No country dominates another. Too many countries and their populations have been pushed into chaos, death and displacement by avoidable wars. Europe must take a courageous stand against all aggressors from any bloc and, based on the UN Charter, work for peaceful conflict resolution. To this end, we want not only to reform the United Nations, but also to strengthen the arms control protocols in Europe, starting with the adoption of the treaty banning nuclear weapons throughout the continent and ending with global nuclear and military disarmament. We will push for the initiation of a peace process under UN auspices in Israel-Palestine, Ukraine, Western Sahara and elsewhere.
Solidarity and Respect for Human Rights
A human being is a human being,
Freedom of movement is a fundamental right
The peaceful and trusting coexistence of all people is the basis for prosperity and our primary goal. We firmly oppose fundamentalist and fascist endeavours and misanthropy. Our policy is based on the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights for everyone, regardless of their country of birth. We recognise that migration is an extreme circumstance and rarely happens voluntarily and lightly. Therefore, we say no to the current European migration policy, whose main elements are externalisation, border hardening, detention, rapid deportation and criminalisation. In addition, European foreign policy contributes significantly to forced migration through economic pressure, support for wars and climate-damaging behaviour, the target of which is the EU states, among others. We support all municipalities in Europe that take in migrants and give them equal access to housing, work, healthcare and social participation. Our job guarantee, universal living income and access to common goods including education and housing will prevent the playing off of different population groups against each other. In addition, we will fight for the rights of women and minorities throughout the European Union. Human trafficking and gender-based violence will be added to the list of criminal offences and all national legislation in EU countries will be aligned with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention.
The Basis for Prosperity: a Democratised Euro
A payment platform for the many
instead of a financial system for the few
With monetary and currency policy as the exclusive playing field of an unelected elite of technocratic central bankers, a fundamental component of the political sphere has been almost completely removed from any democratic influence since the introduction of the euro and the establishment of the supposed independence of the European Central Bank (ECB). We oppose the ECB’s arbitrary decisions regarding key interest rates, bond purchases and other monetary policy instruments, which represent ineffective and misguided attempts to combat inflation on the backs of the working majority of European society and have massively promoted the extreme growth in wealth of a few oligarchs in recent years. We want to incorporate the area of monetary policy, analogous to fiscal policy, into the democratic sphere and transfer the political steering of the ECB to a strengthened European Parliament in order to democratically legitimise decisions on monetary policy in the future and coordinate them with the Parliament’s budgetary policy agenda. We are also in favour of an enabling monetary policy and will use the resulting opportunities to resolutely drive forward the socio-ecological transformation on our continent. Finally, we want to abolish the unjustified oligopoly of the commercial banking sector in payment transactions and implement a public digital payment platform that allows Europe’s citizens to make transactions with hard digital central bank money (sovereign money) while complying with strict data protection requirements.
Real Democracy in a United Europe
Freedom, Equality, Transparency
We know: Europe must be democratised or it will disintegrate. That is why we are in favour of the further development of the European Union into a federal European republic with the cornerstones of freedom as non-domination, legal equality, separation of powers and civil society participation. In it, the citizens of Europe should be able to elect a common, democratically sovereign and truly transnational parliament as well as other legislative bodies. In line with the concept of deliberative democracy, randomly drawn citizens’ assemblies with binding decision-making powers at all administrative levels should act as an additional check and corrective to government policy and, by directly involving the population in the political process, reduce disenchantment with politics and strengthen trust in democratic institutions. The regulatory framework of this Europe should no longer be the nation states, but regions and cities. A constituent assembly should draw up and adopt a new social contract for the establishment of the European Republic to replace the existing neoliberal EU treaties.