PURPOSE: to present the 23rd annual report on the
application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality
in EU law making in 2015.
CONTENT: the report looks at how the European
Union’s institutions and bodies implemented these two
principles in 2015 and how the practice has evolved in comparison
with previous years. It also provides an analysis of the Commission
proposals that were the subject of reasoned opinions during the
year.
Better Regulation: 2015
was the first full year under the new Commission, which had
committed itself to putting subsidiarity at the heart of the
European democratic process. In line with this approach, the
Commission’s 2015 work programme presented a limited number of
new initiatives focusing on ten policy priorities and
announced the withdrawal of a large number of pending
proposals.
To fulfil the commitment made, the
Commission:
- adopted a new Better Regulation
package: the new Better Regulation
framework also allows the Commission to apply the principles of
subsidiarity and proportionality in a more integrated and
comprehensive way than before.
- The new Better Regulation framework helps ensure that
when developing new policies, the Commission assesses their
compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
This assessment now takes place at different stages of the
decision-making cycle. At the early stage of the policy planning
process, roadmaps or inception impact assessments are published for
all major new initiatives;
- introduced new consultation and feedback mechanisms
for new policy initiatives. Member
States and stakeholders – such as regional and local
authorities, businesses, organisations and members of the general
public – can give their views on how the Commission is
developing specific proposals;
- launched the website 'Lighten the load – Have
your say', as well as the Regulatory Fitness and Performance
(REFIT) Platform, they enable the Commission to communicate
on possible excessive charges or inefficiencies arising from
existing regulatory measures.
Impact assessments: in
2015, the Impact Assessment Board and subsequently the Regulatory
Scrutiny Board assessed 30 impact assessments. Seven of
these (23 %) were judged as needing improvements on either
subsidiarity or proportionality, or both. The following cases from
2015 are particularly noteworthy:
Evaluations and fitness checks: subsidiarity and proportionality were also key for
retrospective evaluations and fitness checks carried out in 2015.
The Commission normally produces between 100 and 120 evaluations
every year (122 in 2015).
The 2015 evaluations led the Commission to:
- confirm the strong European added value of the 2013 Fiscalis
and Customs
programmes;
- propose a range of measures to simplify requirements
in order to enable Member States to make procurement more
efficient and strategic;
- adopt a revised proposal for the Prospectus
Directive in order to reduce the administrative burden on
businesses (especially SMEs).
Follow-up of the reasoned opinions of the national
parliaments: 2015 saw the lowest
number of reasoned opinions sent by national parliaments since
the introduction of the subsidiarity control mechanism by the
Lisbon Treaty in 2009. In 2015, the Commission received eight
reasoned opinions from national parliaments on the principle of
subsidiarity, which represented a 62% reduction in the number of
opinions received during 2014.
The eight reasoned opinions issued in 2015 covered
three Commission proposals, namely:
- the proposal
for a Regulation establishing a crisis relocation
mechanism;
- the proposal
amending Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 as regards the possibility
for the Member States to restrict or prohibit the use of
genetically modified food and feed on their territory;
- the proposal
amending Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic
exchange of information in the field of taxation.
Despite the small number of reasoned opinions
submitted in 2015, a number of chambers continued their call for
the subsidiarity control mechanism to be strengthened.
The European Parliament:
Parliament has continued to address issues of subsidiarity and
proportionality in the context of its work on legislative
proposals. In 2015, the European Parliament prepared 13 initial
appraisals, one impact assessment of substantive parliamentary
amendments and six ex post impact assessments.
In addition, it prepared a reports on the cost
of non-Europe, mapping the gains of actions at European level
proposed by the European Parliament.
Lastly, the Committee of the Regions continued
its work on subsidiarity issues, notably by adopting and
implementing its third subsidiarity programme and organising the
seventh subsidiarity conference.