Subsidiarity discussed at European Convention

Not all problems concerning subsidiarity have been covered in the report drawn up by the various working groups at the European Convention, the convention representative of the government, Rev. Professor Peter Serracino Inglott said.

Speaking during a convention session held on Thursday and yesterday, he maintained that often in the European system, there was no sharp separation between supranational, national and infranational levels.

"At a time when functional subsidiarity is increasingly an issue, the future of Europe requires a corollary to the subsidiarity principle, namely that decisions should be taken at those nodes in the European network at which information flow is at its maximum," he said.

The session made an initial appraisal of the proposals by the various working groups, in particular those dealing with subsidiarity and the legal personality of the European Union.

Prof. Serracino Inglott's intervention was made during the debate on the report by the Subsidiarity Working Group, of which he is a member.

The group's main proposal was to create an early warning mechanism in which national parliaments would exercise a measure of control over the application of the principle of subsidiarity. According to this principle, decisions are to be taken at the level which is closest to the citizen.

Prof. Serracino Inglott said the proposal would enable national parliaments to factor in some added democratic value to the European Parliament's share in the legislative process, essentially by raising grassroots interest in this process.