PARTICIPATION OF SUB-NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN EU DECISION MAKING

The Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) unites seventy-four presidents of European sub-national  or regional parliaments with legislative powers. They are established in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The subnational or regional structures differ radically from one EU member state to another. Some member states, such as Germany, Belgium or Austria, are highly decentralized federal states. Next, there are decentralized regionalized states, such as Italy, where regions and provinces have legislative powers, and Spain, where regions have legislative powers. Finally, there are asymmetrical regionalized states, such as Finland, where, for historical reasons, only the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands have legislative powers; Portugal, where only the islands of the Azores and Madeira have legislative powers; and the United Kingdom, where the regions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have different powers and status.

The Lisbon Treaty has greatly enhanced these parliaments’ political participation in EU decision making, but sub-national or regional parliaments aspiring to closer involvement in the Early Warning System (EWS) still face several hurdles. First, even if the national authorities are willing to cooperate with regional parliaments for the purpose of subsidiarity monitoring, there may still be certain legal and constitutional obstacles. A good example is the situation in Belgium, where the seven parliaments at the national and sub-national levels have drafted an inter-parliamentary cooperation agreement to organize the subsidiarity check according to the respective competences of each parliament and to distribute the votes among the parliaments. Political and constitutional objections, however, mean that the agreement has not yet entered into force.

Second, most sub-national or regional parliaments analyse EU draft legislative acts on a case-by-case basis. As a consequence, they need to develop an efficient mechanism for selecting acts that are relevant to them and that may potentially infringe the subsidiarity principle. Furthermore, the time allowed to regional parliaments to prepare a position on subsidiarity is very short, since they have to send it to the national parliament, which in turn must have an opportunity to consider it before the end of the eight-week deadline. Finally, some sub-national or regional parliaments show signs of disillusionment over the lack of efficiency and visibility of the EWS. Their work will only have a real impact if it is taken over by national parliaments and if the threshold of votes can be attained to trigger a yellow or orange card procedure.

These last two conditions are at first sight beyond the control of sub-national or regional parliaments. Nevertheless, a number of measures can be taken to cope with these difficulties.

First, close cooperation is needed between the executives and the legislatures. Sub-national and national parliaments should amend or conclude cooperation agreements with the relevant governments. These governments may have more expertise and means to cope with subsidiarity monitoring. Consequently, they should help the parliaments to filter EU draft legislative acts and provide subsidiarity analysis. Moreover, they should inform the parliaments of the list of envisaged legislative initiatives according to the Commission’s work programme. A right to full information exists in Austria for both chambers of the national parliament, and this constitutes an efficient early filtering system.

Second, specific cooperation measures should be set up for those member states with sub-national parliaments with legislative powers to ensure effective communication between parliaments and follow-up of the positions raised with the national parliament by sub-national parliaments. The establishment of a Conference of Presidents of sub-national regional parliaments, like those in Austria and Spain, might improve the horizontal exchange of information and coordination between these parliaments and enhance communication with the national parliament, especially in member states with numerous regional parliaments.

Third, from an internal perspective, it might be useful for the parliaments—whether national or sub-national—to assign responsibility for subsidiarity monitoring to a single Committee (e.g., an ‘EU Affairs Committee’). This centralization would certainly accelerate the process, since this Committee could rapidly develop its experience and a uniform procedure to efficiently monitor subsidiarity.

Fourth, deadlines should be imposed on the different phases of the procedure. This idea has been implemented by the German Community in Belgium in new rules on subsidiarity checks and permits in order to accelerate the process.

Fifth, strong cooperation should be established among parliaments across the EU to exchange information on EU draft legislative acts and subsidiarity issues. This would help them individually identify potentially contentious proposals and prepare their positions. Furthermore, such cooperation could significantly enhance the number of positions raised and consequently increase the chances of attaining the thresholds to trigger the yellow or orange card procedures. The CoR could serve as a forum for the exchange of information between these national and sub-national parliaments. It set up a database (REGPEX) in February 2012 in order to facilitate these exchanges between sub-national regional parliaments.

In the 20 EU member states in which sub-national or regional parliaments do not have legislative power, a number of regional assemblies and other relevant stakeholders are involved—to various degrees—in the EWS. Diverse mechanisms have been set up by these regional assemblies and other relevant stakeholders to assess subsidiarity in EU draft legislation. Since these subnational or regional assemblies have no legislative powers, they do not formally participate in the EWS. Nonetheless, they could be invited to express their opinion through informal channels, in the form of a consultation by the national parliament on EU draft legislative acts with a specific regional or local impact. Moreover, the delegation within the CoR could function as a consultation point. In some member states, the national committees that assess subsidiarity issues hold their meetings in public, so that any interested parties, including regional or local authorities, can give their opinion on the subject. Finally, these regional and local authorities can defend their positions through European associations representing their interests.

The Italian ‘Consiglio Regionale del Trentino Alto Adige’, which - albeit not a member of CALRE - nonetheless corresponds to a regional assembly having legislative powers. Consequently, there are 75 regional parliaments having legislative powers in the EU.

1. Abruzzo Regional Assembly,
2. Åland Parliament (Finland)
3. Aragonese Parliament,
4. Assembly of Madrid,
5. Asturias Legislative Assembly,
6. Azores Legislative Assembly,
7. Baden-Württemberg State Parliament,
8. Basque Regional Parliament,
9. Bavarian State Parliament,
10. Berlin City Parliament,
11. Brandenburg State Parliament,
12. Bremen City Parliament,
13. Brussels-Capital Region Parliament,
14. Burgenland State Parliament,
15. Calabria Regional Assembly,
16. Carinthia State Parliament,
17. Catalan Regional Parliament,
18. Emilia Romagna Regional Legislative Assembly,
19. Extremadura Regional Assembly,
20. Flemish Parliament,
21. Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Assembly,
22. Galician Regional Parliament,
23. Hamburg City Parliament,
24. Hesse State Parliament,
25. Kärtner State Parliament
26. Lower Austria State Parliament,
27. Lower Saxony State Parliament,
28. Madeira Legislative Assembly,
29. Marche Regional Legislative Assembly,
30. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Parliament,
31. National Parliament for Wales
32. Navarre Regional Parliament,
33. North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament,
34. Northern Ireland Assembly,
35. Parliament of Andalusia,
36. Parliament of Basque Country
37. Parliament of Cantabria
38. Parliament of Castille-La-Mancha
39. Parliament of Castile and Leon
40. Parliament of La Rioja,
41. Parliament of the Balearic Islands,
42. Parliament of the Canaries
43. Parliament of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels
44. Parliament of the French-speaking Community of Belgium
45. Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium
46. Piedmont Regional Assembly,
47. Regional Assembly of Murcia,
48. Regional Council of Aosta Valley,
49. Regional Council of Basilicata,
50. Regional Council of Liguria,
51. Regional Council of Molise,
52. Regional Council of Trentino High Adige
53. Regional Council of Umbria,
54. Regional Council of Veneto,
55. Regional Parliament of Valencia,
56. Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament,
57. Salzburg State Parliament,
58. Saxony State Parliament,
59. Saxony-Anhalt State Parliament,
60. Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament,
61. Scottish Parliament,
62. Sicilian Regional Assembly,
63. South Tyrol Autonomous Province Legislative Assembly,
64. Steiermark State Parliament,
65. the Saarland State Parliament,
66. Thuringia State Parliament,
67. Trentino-South Tyrol Autonomous Region Legislative Assembly,
68. Trento Autonomous Province Legislative Assembly,
69. Tuscany Regional Legislative Assembly,
70. Tyrol State Parliament,
71. Upper Austria State Parliament
72. Vienna State Parliament,
73. Vorarlberg State Parliament,
74. Walloon Parliament.
75. Welsh National Assembly,