Why Did We Europeans Establish a German Party?

Because Europe Still Makes Political Responsibility National

In our previous contribution, “Why a Political Party at All?”, we argued that a political party is not the mission, but the constitutional vehicle through which civic concern can become political consequence.

That was the first step.

But the very next question follows almost automatically:

If your mission is European, why did you establish a German party?

It is a fair question.
At first glance, it even looks like a contradiction.

If one speaks of Europe, thinks in European terms, worries about Europe’s future, and wants to contribute to Europe’s political renewal, why start in Germany at all? Why not found a truly European party right away?

The answer is simple:

Because Europe is politically ahead of its own legal instruments.

• We can think European.
• We can act European.
• We can organise European.

But when we want to enter elections, form party structures and assume democratic responsibility, the law still sends us back to the Member States.

So, we began where we legally could begin: in Germany.

What: A European mission, but a national starting point

Our strategic statement is this:

We established a German party not because our political horizon is German, but because the present European legal framework still forces genuinely political action to begin at national level.

That is the key to understanding our decision.

We are not a German-national project dressed up in European rhetoric. Nor are we merely a German party with a soft spot for European cooperation.

Our mission is European in scope and civilisational in ambition.

We are concerned with the long-term survival of humanity in an intact environment.
We want to preserve Europe’s liberal civic freedoms.
And we want Europe to become capable of acting effectively in a difficult world.

None of that stops at the German border.

And yet, when one wants to turn such convictions into party politics, one encounters an institutional reality that is still largely national.

This is not because Europe does not exist politically. It does.

But it does mean that Europe still lacks the kind of directly usable political vehicle that would allow citizens across the Union to join one common party in the same immediate sense in which they can join a national party.

That is why our European mission had to begin in a national legal form.

2. How: Why this became a German party

We live in Germany.

German law gave us the first concrete framework within which we could act responsibly. So our first organisational step was to found Europäer für den Planeten as a German political party.

That was not the final destination.

It was the legally available beginning.

A national political party, at least in the German sense, is a direct instrument of democratic participation. It can organise members, build a programme, nominate candidates, contest elections, develop internal structures and gradually become politically effective.

A so-called European political party, by contrast, is something rather different.

It is already more than an international club, but still less than a genuine pan-European citizens’ party.

That sentence is important enough to repeat:

The European party is already more than an international club, but still less than a genuine pan-European citizens’ party.

Under European law, such parties contribute to forming European political awareness and expressing the will of Union citizens. They are recognised at European level, may have European legal personality, and are registered and supervised under a specific EU legal framework.

But they do not replace national party law. Nor does European legal status itself give them the right to nominate candidates in national or European Parliament elections. Those questions remain tied to national electoral systems and Member State law.

In practical terms, today’s European party structure is still largely built around cooperation between political actors from different Member States. It operates on European level, but it does not yet offer the fully developed, direct, common political home that a truly integrated European democracy would require.

In other words:

Europe already has transnational political structures.
But it does not yet have a fully mature European party system.

That is precisely the gap we are thinking about.

Why: European parties are special — and not enough

This is where the issue of purpose, legal foundation and practical usefulness becomes decisive.

At national level, a party is primarily a vehicle for citizens within a constitutional democracy. It has a defined legal role in political participation and representation. It is close to the electorate, embedded in national law, and connected to electoral processes that directly shape political power.

At European level, things are different.

A European political party operates in a more indirect and layered environment. It exists above the national level, but it does not replace it. It links, coordinates and represents political activity across borders, but it still depends heavily on national political ecosystems.

That gives it a strange character.

It is not merely symbolic.
But it is not yet fully sovereign as a democratic vehicle either.

Today’s European political party resembles a transnational federation or alliance more than a fully fledged party in the German constitutional sense. It coordinates political families across borders, but it does not yet give European citizens a single, common, directly usable party vehicle across the Union.

That is why we cannot simply leap over the Member States and start where we would ideally like to be.

We must work with the instruments that currently exist.

And that leads to a sober but unavoidable conclusion:

Anyone who wants to build a genuinely European political force must, for the time being, do so by building national parties across Europe and linking them together step by step.

That is the long march through the institutions in European form.

• It is not romantic.
• It is not elegant.
• It is not quick.
• But it is real.

Our longer-term goal: From national nodes to a truly European structure

Let us therefore state our ambition openly.

Our goal is not simply to remain a German party with a European name.

Our goal is to contribute to the emergence of a political structure in which European citizens can one day participate much more directly in a genuinely European democratic organisation.

In such a framework, national parties would no longer be the final political unit. They would become regional democratic sub-units of a broader European political entity.

That is not today’s legal reality.

But that is precisely why the work must begin now.

The practical path is clear enough:

• First, build a serious national party where one legally can.
  
  
• Then encourage like-minded citizens in other European countries to establish sister parties under their own national law.
  
  
• Then connect these parties through a common political identity, a shared programme, coordinated structures and a common strategic centre.
  
  
• And when the time is ripe, use that ecosystem to act as European as possible — even before the law fully catches up.

Once parallel parties exist in several Member States, an umbrella structure can emerge: a kind of headquarters, a common centre of gravity, an organisational expression of the Europe that politically already exists in intention, even if not yet fully in law.

In this way, one may begin to simulate what the future ought to make real.

That is not deception.

It is prefiguration.

We build, within the limits of the current order, the form we believe the future order should one day recognise properly.

What follows: The German beginning is not a retreat, but a commitment

Some may regard the decision to found a German party as a retreat into the nation-state.

We regard it as the opposite.

It is a commitment to reality.

It means we are not content with abstract declarations of European conviction. We are willing to do the laborious institutional work required to make European politics more real.

That work begins where law, citizenship and elections are currently organised: in the Member States.

So yes, to make a start, we were compelled to found a national party in accordance with applicable law. And as it happens, we live here in Germany; so it became a German party.

That is not a contradiction of our European ambition.

It is the first responsible expression of it.

And it also teaches modesty.

Europe will not be politically renewed by grand slogans alone.
It will be renewed, if at all, through patient organisational work, through programme, through membership, through internal discipline, through electoral participation, and through the gradual linking of political efforts across borders.

That is harder than waving a flag with twelve stars.

But it is also far more serious.

We do not want merely to celebrate Europe.

We want to help organise it politically.

A call to European builders

If this analysis is correct, then the consequence is obvious.

Those in other European countries who share our concerns should not wait passively for Europe to become politically what it is not yet.

They should begin where they are.

• They should ask what is legally possible in their country.
• They should gather like-minded citizens.
• They should study the rules.
• They should build structures.
• They should form sister parties where appropriate.
• And they should connect these efforts across borders.

Only by working jointly can we move from a loose European sentiment to a genuinely effective European political force.

Europe will not become politically adult by wishful thinking.

It will become politically adult only when enough Europeans are willing to organise it that way.

That is the deeper reason why we founded a German party.

Not because Germany is enough.

But because Germany is where, for us, the real work could begin.

Next Friday, we will address the third question:

Why do we call our community a members’ party?

Annotated APA 7 references

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, art. 21.

• Article 21 is the constitutional anchor for the role of political parties in Germany. It states that parties participate in the formation of the political will of the people. This supports the article’s distinction between a national party as a direct constitutional-democratic vehicle and a European party as a different, more transnational construct. The Federal Returning Officer’s legal-bases page reproduces this role and points to the Political Parties Act as the statutory framework.

Gesetz über die politischen Parteien [Political Parties Act], § 2.

• Section 2 of the German Political Parties Act defines parties as associations of citizens that seek, permanently or for a longer period, to influence political will formation at federal or Land level and participate in representation in the Bundestag or a Land parliament. This is essential for the article’s claim that a German party is a legally usable democratic vehicle for citizens, programme work, candidacies and elections.

Treaty on European Union, art. 10(4).

• Article 10(4) TEU gives European political parties their constitutional treaty-level role: they contribute to forming European political awareness and expressing the will of Union citizens. This is an important positive reference because the article should not dismiss European political parties as meaningless. The problem is more precise: they exist and matter, but they are not yet equivalent to a fully direct pan-European citizens’ party.

Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2025 on the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations.

• This is the central legal reference for the current EU framework. The regulation defines a European political party as a registered political alliance pursuing political objectives across the Union. It also defines political alliances as structured cooperation between member parties, citizens of the Union and, where applicable, associated member parties. This corrects the overly simple claim that only parties can be members, while still supporting the article’s broader point: European parties remain special high-threshold transnational vehicles rather than ordinary direct citizen parties.

Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445, registration conditions for European political parties.

• The regulation requires, among other things, that a political alliance seeking registration have its seat in a Member State and meet transnational representation or electoral-support thresholds in at least one quarter of Member States. This supports the article’s point that a European political party is not a simple vehicle that citizens in one country can found immediately in the same way as a national party. It presupposes an already existing transnational political presence.

Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2025/2445, legal effects and limits of European party status.

• The regulation explicitly states that European legal status does not entitle European political parties or foundations to nominate candidates in national or European Parliament elections or to participate in national or European referendums. Those issues remain subject to national legal and electoral systems. This is one of the strongest legal supports for the article’s thesis: Europe still makes political responsibility national at the decisive point where parties enter elections.

Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations. (2026). Legal background and register of European political parties and European political foundations

• The Authority is responsible for registration, de-registration, verification of conditions, management of the public register and aspects of supervision. Its own materials also stress that European political party funding may not be used to fund national parties or candidates. This reinforces the distinction between European parties, national parties and parliamentary political groups.

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights & European Commission for Democracy through Law. (2023). Guidelines on political party regulation (2nd ed.).

• The OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission guidelines provide a broad democratic standard for political party regulation. They are useful because they show that party law should enable establishment, development and functioning of parties while respecting freedom of association and democratic principles. For the article, this reference supports the general claim that parties are legitimate and necessary democratic vehicles, but that their regulation differs substantially across national systems.

European Parliament. (2021). Financing of political structures in EU Member States: How funding is provided to national political parties, their foundations and parliamentary political groups, and how the use of funds is controlled.

• This study is useful for the internal strategic table below. It shows that, despite some convergence in state funding and disclosure rules, national systems still differ significantly in donation limits, spending limits, oversight and party-finance control. That is highly relevant if sister parties are to be established in other Member States.

Council of the European Union. (2024). European political parties and foundations.

• The Council’s explanation is useful for a concise distinction: European political parties bring together national and regional parties from several Member States, while they are not the same as political groups in the European Parliament. This supports the article’s distinction between a transnational party family, a parliamentary group and a national citizen party.