Three questions with Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann on the European elections

With new free trade agreements and a deepened internal market, the EU can make a tangible contribution to resilient supply chains and thus also to stable prices. The trade agreement with Canada (CETA) must finally be fully ratified in all EU countries, including the regulations on investment protection. We should also resolutely push ahead with free trade with South America. In Brussels, I will work to reduce the bureaucratic burden on trade, because good environmental and consumer protection can also be achieved with less bureaucracy. The EU laws passed under the “Green Deal” must therefore be reviewed in the next legislative period and the resulting bureaucratic burdens significantly reduced. For me, it is important that the EU packaging regulation does not become an expensive bureaucratic monster for companies, but rather benefits the environment and facilitates trade in the internal market. The EU marketing standards for fruit and vegetables can also be fundamentally simplified. Trade, like many other sectors, is suffering from the worsening shortage of skilled workers. We therefore need an EU strategy for the recruitment of skilled workers. The goal must be a largely harmonized immigration law for skilled workers that also allows third-country nationals uncomplicated mobility for the purpose of gainful employment.

There are quite a few things. I have been a passionate European from an early age. It is the greatest peace project in living memory. With its fundamental values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, the EU protects people from discrimination, state arbitrariness and human rights violations. The single market offers incredible opportunities for growth and advancement for innovative companies. Europe has brought us peace and prosperity. We must revive this European spirit. It must not be suffocated by bureaucracy and pettiness.

I, too, am dissatisfied with how much has developed in Brussels: Small-scale specifications that extend into the everyday life of companies, but no convincing answers to the big questions of economic system competition and technological revolutions. But the good news is: There is a lot of energy in Europe. We can become world leaders again economically and ensure greater security on the continent. This election is about the really big issues, the defense of our prosperity and our way of life. Brussels has great influence on this. However, we must make much better use of it than has been the case in recent years under Commission President von der Leyen (CDU). That is what I stand for, and that is why it is worth going to the polls on June 9 and voting for the Free Democrats.