On 18 December the EA president, Dr Uno Silberg participated in the Subsidiarity Assizes in the Bundesrat premises in Berlin.
The conference provided with the occasion for taking stock of the Subsidiarity monitoring procedure since the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty.So far national parliaments have triggered two times the yellow card procedure on the grounds of subsidiary concerns thus forcing the commission to withdraw or amend its legislative proposals respectively on the so called ' Monti II ' Regulation on the right to strike and, more recently, on setting up a European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO)
Reference during the conference has been made to the necessity of promoting a culture of subsidiarity and an efficient multilevel governance system whereby decision are taken at the most appropriate level and coordination mechanism between national and regional parliaments established to make sure the views of subnational government are duly taken into account. Members have expressed the necessity to give national and regional parliament more time to react on a given proposal of the European Commission as the current eight week window seems too short. According to the EA President, Dr Silberg the EU should follow up onto the Barroso Statement whereby "Europe has to be big on big things and small on small things."We have to narrow the gap between citizens and EU and better legislation is also a mean to achieve this objective. The EU should intervene only where it clearly brings and added value and should refrain from legislating in matters where national and local governments are better placed" he concluded.
