The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party agreed on Friday to join the European Identity and Democracy (ID) party, its ideologically aligned group on the European level.
"The European Union is an undemocratic construct incapable of reform, the EU project has failed," the former parliament member Roland Hartwig said at a party conference.
Joining the ID party, he said, was a new approach to fighting the "presumptions and incompetence of the EU" from within, together with allies from other countries.
The ID party is a political group of the European parliament bringing together a coalition of nationalist, right-wing and eurosceptic parties in the European Union.
It includes French populist leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally party and the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ).
Hartwig reassured party members that the AfD would remain a completely autonomous German party even if it joined ID. He stressed however, that the ID's strategy corresponds to that of the AfD and that ID prioritizes national sovereignty.
The ID Party is "a very suitable platform to further advance networking with European sister parties of the AfD," wrote a statement.
Moreover, it said, the ID party gets funding from the EU budget.
Some AfD members opposed the accession saying: "With our national voice speaking directly for German interests even at the EU level, our positions carry more weight and have more chance of success than in an EU party designed for compromise."
Another AfD member said by joining the ID party: "We are losing our credibility."
