During the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments held in the Seimas, Session II “Five Years after the Coming into Force of the Treaty of Lisbon: Lessons of Subsidiarity Checks in Parliaments” has discussed greater involvement of national Parliaments in the EU legislative process.

While delivering his speech, Milan Stech, Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic, said that it was unnecessary to centrally regulate relatively marginal matters. “I also worry about the bloated administratively demanding measures. It is no accident that almost three quarters of the EU population consider the EU to be profusely bureaucratic,” said the leader of the Czech Parliament.

 According to him, the institutional changes brought by the Lisbon Treaty, are actually insufficient on their own. “It is necessary to be in daily contact with citizens to explain European policies and to defend them. […] The subsidiarity principle has been incorporated in European law since the Maastricht Treaty. The real impact of this principle, however, remains negligible for many reasons. Although the practice of national parliaments and of the Commission is still settling, the subsidiarity control mechanism is not sufficiently effective and efficient in involving national parliaments in the monitoring of European policies. It is therefore appropriate to consider its reform,” highlighted the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic.

Pietro Grasso, President of the Senate of the Republic of Italy, emphasised that subsidiarity is one of the fundamental principles of European democracy. “While I am a firm believer in the prerogative of national parliaments to enforce subsidiarity compliance, I am opposed to the exercise of this right for exclusionary or confrontational purposes. These instruments should not be used by national parliaments to compete with the powers of the European Parliament,” said Mr Grasso. In his opinion “a multi-speed Europe is inconceivable”. “It is, I believe, extremely important to advocate a new approach to inter-parliamentary cooperation and to the parliamentary oversight of subsidiarity, and to exploit the full potential of this instrument of cooperation. […] This needs to be matched by an increased openness to dialogue from other European institutions,” stated the President of the Senate of the Republic of Italy. He underscored that we needed to come up with shared solutions to the challenges now facing the European project.

 Anouchka van Miltenburg, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, told about the experience of the subsidiarity check in the Netherlands and submitted recommendations on how to improve this procedure. “It is my opinion that we, as Speakers of Parliaments, have a role to play with regard to the well-functioning of this Lisbon instrument,” said the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands.

Lord Timothy Boswell, Chairman of the European Union Select Committee of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, informed the participants of an inquiry on the role of national parliaments in the European Union. “Our key conclusion was that the EU needs national parliaments to play a more active role. This can be done, quickly and practically and without the need for treaty change, if we as parliamentarians have sufficient determination to see that it happens,” said Lord Boswell. He though that this should not be seen as a power grab by parliaments of EU Member States.

Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.

Please find more on the Conference on the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Rimas Rudaitis, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]