"We support the involvement of European regional parliaments in subsidiarity issues" – President of the EPP Group in the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Michael Schneider, underlined following the European Parliament's plenary session debate on the 2012-2013 reports on Subsidiarity and Proportionality last week.
The CoR's Chair of the Subsidiarity Steering Group, which provides political governance for subsidiarity monitoring in the CoR takes the position that "just as national parliaments are encouraged by the European Parliament to issue more opinions in terms of compliance of draft EU legislation with subsidiarity and proportionality, we would like to ensure regional parliaments and in particular those with legislative powers have all the support needed to fully play their part in the preventive review of EU legislation".
To help them in this endeavour, the CoR has developed tools over the years such as REGPEX and the Subsidiarity Monitoring Network which serve as a source of information and exchange between regional parliaments and governments in the preparation of their subsidiarity analyses, and provide an easy access to the EU institutions' legislative proposals and national parliaments' opinions.
President Schneider's comments on the European Parliament plenary debate came shortly after he called on the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, to step up cooperation last week, as well as the first training session for regional parliaments on subsidiarity matters held in the Italian Senate with the Italian regional parliaments in Rome earlier this year. "The European Committee of the Regions aims to strengthen cooperation with the EU institutions and the national and regional parliaments to ensure that in each case the best possible legal regulations are met" President Schneider stressed.
The Parliament's report refers to the involvement of national parliaments in the process of creating EU legislation. MEP Tadeusz Zwiefka (EPP/PL), shadow rapporteur on the report, outlines also the possibility of a new green card instrument: "It would provide national parliaments in the framework of the political dialogue the ability to submit constructive proposals for consideration by the European Commission. However, this initiative requires a broader debate in the future. It can be the beginning of a greater involvement on the side of national parliaments in EU law-making process" he explained.
On 19 April, President Schneider will present the Subsidiarity Annual Report 2015 to the CoR's Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX) in the presence of the European Parliament rapporteur on the topic.
The subsidiarity principle is a cornerstone of the legal and political structure of the European Union, providing order to shared responsibilities in EU policy-making and law-making. It ensures that decisions are taken closest to the citizen and that the European Union refrains from action when the objectives may be effectively reached at the level of central government, the region or the community.