Report from the Commission. Annual report 2015 on relations between the European Commission and national parliaments

2015 marked the first full year in office of the new Commission under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker. When setting out his political priorities for office, President Juncker underlined the importance of the Commission’s relationship with national Parliaments, particularly in enforcing the principle of subsidiarity. He also expressed his intention to explore ways of improving the Commission’s interaction with national Parliaments ‘as a way of bringing the European Union closer to its citizens’.

The Commission’s commitment to forging a new partnership with national Parliaments was reflected in the mission letters that President Juncker addressed to his fellow Commissioners. In these, he called upon them to present and explain important proposals or initiatives to national Parliaments in person. The renewed emphasis on the importance of direct personal contacts saw Members of the Commission pay more than 200 visits to national Parliaments in the course of 2015.

The Commission also took steps to reinvigorate its two traditional channels of written communication with national Parliaments, namely the political dialogue and the subsidiarity control mechanism. The Commission departed from its previous practice whereby replies to national Parliaments’ opinions were signed solely by the Vice-President in charge of interinstitutional relations. Now, replies are co-signed by the First Vice-President and either the Vice-President or Commissioner responsible for the policy area. This underlines the political importance that the Commission attaches to this dialogue. The Commission also took steps in 2015 to improve the manner in which it replies to national Parliaments’ opinions with the aim of reinforcing the political nature of replies while continuing to provide substantive answers to all technical issues raised.

This eleventh annual report on relations between the Commission and national Parliaments focuses on the political dialogue that was launched by the Commission in 2006 to provide a framework for exchanging information and opinions across all policy areas, both on legislative proposals and on non-legislative initiatives. The subsidiarity control mechanism, which gives national Parliaments the right to assess whether legislative proposals in areas that do not fall within the exclusive competence of the European Union comply with the principle of subsidiarity, is addressed in the 2015 annual report on subsidiarity and proportionality, which is published in parallel and should be seen as complementary to this report.