The European Commission recorded a sharp decline in 2018 in the number of reasoned opinions sent to it under the subsidiarity control mechanism, according to the 2018 annual report on the implementation of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, published on Thursday 11 July, and relations with national parliaments.
For example, the Commission received 37 reasoned opinions following a legislative procedure, compared with 52 in 2017 and 65 in 2016, the report states. The total number of opinions received, on the other hand, remains stable compared to previous years (576 in 2017, 569 in 2018).
The main areas on which most opinions were expressed were: - the completion of Economic and Monetary Union (15 opinions); - the future cohesion policy (13); - consumer policy (11); - the common agricultural policy (11); - the European Labour Agency and access to social protection (11); - the future of learning (11).
Large differences persist between national parliaments. The 10 most active chambers issued 472 opinions, representing 83% of the total number of opinions issued. 10 chambers did not issue any opinions at all during 2018. With 99 opinions, the Portuguese Parliament was the most active, followed by the Czech Senate (81 opinions), then, far behind, the Spanish Parliament (53 opinions) or the German Bundesrat (52 opinions).
In total, 140 visits and meetings of national parliamentarians took place in Brussels in 2018 and Commission officials attended more than 80 meetings of national parliamentary committees to discuss legislative proposals.
A year ago, almost to the day, the Task Force on Subsidiarity and Proportionality presented a report proposing, among other things, to change the Treaties in order to make the "yellow card" procedure more flexible (see EUROPE 12059/3).
To consult the report: https://bit.ly/2NQUYbv (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)