Brussels, 23/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - During the last meeting of the working group of the European Convention on subsidiarity, several CDU/CSU members of the Convention, including the minister-president of Baden-Württemberg, Erwin Teufel, the representative of the Bundestag, Peter Altmaier, and MEPs Elma Brok and Joachim Wuermeling proposed the creation of a "Competence Chamber" with the Community's Court of Justice in order to ensure respect of subsidiarity. Elmar Brok said they were proposing "ex-post" legal control, but also a rapid procedure that could come one month before the entry into force of European legislation, at the request of a significant minority in Council, the Commission, European Parliament, national parliaments (including the Bundesrat) and regions with legislative powers.
Fine Gael MEP John Cushnahan reproached British European Affairs Minister Peter Hain, who is a member of the Convention, for making a "cynical attempt" with his proposal for a subsidiarity watchdog consisting of one MEP from each Member State, to "reintroduce the already rejected British proposal for a second chamber of the European Parliament by the back door". Mr Cushnahan was "particularly perturbed" by Mr Hain's reported remarks in the British press when he claimed that such an initiative would reverse the "tide of creeping federalism".