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 Unions 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 Commissions 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:
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:
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:
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.