In Strasbourg on Wednesday 18th April, the European Parliament approved by a large majority (550 votes to 70 with 72 abstentions) the own-initiative report by Mady Delvaux (S&D, Luxembourg) on subsidiarity and proportionality for 2015 and 2016, which warns against an interpretation of these principles for Eurosceptic purposes.
The vote is no surprise, as the Parliament's legal affairs committee supported the text virtually unanimously in late March. It arose from cooperation between the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs, as Emil Radev (EPP, Bulgaria) told the debate on Tuesday 17 April.
In her report, Delvaux highlights the need to preserve subsidiarity and proportionality, which are fundamental principles of the EU. However, she stresses the dangers of their interpretation, in particular for Eurosceptic purposes.
As regards the substance, the Luxembourg MEP takes position against extending the eight-week period during which the national parliaments may issue reasoned opinions concerning respect for the principle of subsidiarity in the framework of a legislative proposal. The text also advises against creating new instruments to guarantee respect for the two principles. “I stress that there is no need to add instruments and procedures that will increase the European bureaucratic load”, Delvaux told the debate. The text calls for proper use to be made of the instruments already available to the national parliaments and citizens, which is currently not the case.
Although the annual reports on subsidiarity and proportionality often raise little interest among the MEPs, the text voted on at this plenary session had more of an impact. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, expressed his intention of regulating better during his state of the union speech of 13th September of last year (see EUROPE 11861) and Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President of the Commission, set up a working group to look at the issue on 14 November, consisting of three representatives each for the European Parliament, the national parliaments and the Committee of the Regions (see EUROPE 11905). Taking the view that the configurations and mandate of this working group did not respect the European Parliament's position as co-legislator, the MEPs decided not to take part in its work. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)