German 'should be a working language of EU', says Merkel's party The inferior status of German is a long-standing grievance for Berlin, which points out that it has over 100 million speakers, including German-speaking minorities in Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Poland. The CDU's draft programme also opposes any dismantling of the eurozone. Ahead of an election in which it faces a eurosceptic challenger, Alternative für Deutschland, the draft says: "We want to progress, as far as possible, with all of our EU partners." It commits the party to a defence of the single currency, saying that the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU are "the German Europe parties." The manifesto opposes a Europe-wide bank deposit guarantee scheme, reflecting German fears that this would leave its taxpayers with the bill for other countries" mistakes. The CDU calls for a "pact for competitiveness" in which states pledge to the EU Commission that they will carry out economic reforms. It calls for the commission to be given greater oversight over national budgets. The draft, due to be formally adopted this weekend, also states that in order to achieve greater mobility in the European labour market, it should be easier to transfer educational qualifications and to move between different social security systems. In an interview last week, Mrs Merkel said that "mobility" was the answer to high youth unemployment and that young people should be ready to move across the continent to find jobs.