Heinrich Wefing calls for referendum on Germany’s Europe policy

Heinrich Wefing

The German Bundestag votes today on whether to raise Germany’s participation in the euro bailout plan, the EFSF, from 88 to 211 billion euros.

But before transferring additional sovereignty from the Bundestag to the EU, Germany’s European policy needs more popular participation, publicist Heinrich Wefing writes in the liberal weekly paper Die Zeit:

“There comes a time when it’s no longer possible to transfer sovereignty without the sovereign – the people.

… Yes, such a referendum would demand an enormous effort from politicians, who in these times of permanent crises are already under huge pressure.

… Yes, such a referendum would be used to further party interests; there would be protest votes, tactical intrigues, arguments that have nothing to do with Europe but only with power struggles in Berlin. … But above and beyond any considerations of constitutional dogma or democratic theory, precisely this would be the political function of a referendum.

… Once we’ve finally had this debate we will gain in sovereignty even as we relinquish it. And Europe can be placed on an entirely new footing of legitimacy, a pedestal that could easily carry it for the next twenty-five years.”

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Federal Agency for Civic Education / Germany

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