Brussels, 06/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - A majority in the German parliament is of the view that the Commission proposal of July 2010 on strengthening and harmonising bank deposit guarantees (see EUROPE 10179) does not respect the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality since it fails to take account of the particularities of the German banking system, including savings and cooperative banks. As a result, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat are likely to decide on Thursday 7 October to activate, for the first time, the early warning system (known as the “yellow card” procedure) provided for in the Lisbon Treaty. The effect could be to have the Commission revise its proposal. Article 6 of Protocol No 2 of the Lisbon Treaty states that any national parliament or any chamber of a national parliament may, within eight weeks of the date of transmission of a draft legislative act, formulate a “reasoned opinion” setting out why it considers that the draft in question does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity. Each national parliament has two votes. Where reasoned opinions on a draft legislative act's non-compliance with the subsidiarity principle gathers at least one third of all the votes allocated to the 27 parliaments, the Commission proposal must be reviewed. Following review, the Commission may decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the proposal. Reasons must be given for the decision. Sources within the parliamentary group of the CDU/CSU (the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel) and the Liberal FDP say that they are hopeful that other parliaments will back the German move (France, Austria and Sweden are among the countries they mention), but it is not certain that the one third threshold will be reached. (H.B./transl.rt)