Press Release: Lisbon Treaty turns Committee of the Regions into subsidiarity watchdog

For the first time, Europe's elected regional and local representatives can challenge new EU laws they consider to be in breach of the subsidiarity principle – the principle that decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the citizens – at the European Court of Justice. Having requested this right for fifteen years, and finally having obtained it in the Lisbon Treaty, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) fleshed out its implementing provisions just days after the entry into force of the new EU Treaty. Meeting in plenary session from 3-4 December 2009 in Brussels, CoR members decided that, in future, they can refer EU laws which infringe the subsidiarity principle to the Court of Justice by a simple majority.