Report from the Commission. Annual report 2012 on subsidiarity and proportionality

This is the twentieth annual report on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in EU law making. The report is submitted in accordance with Article 9 of Protocol No 2 on the application of these principles (hereinafter ‘the Protocol’) attached to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The report looks at how the different EU institutions and bodies have implemented these two principles and whether practice has changed in comparison to previous years. It analyses in more detail certain Commission proposals that were the subject of reasoned opinions in 2012. As 2012 saw the first ‘yellow card’ by national Parliaments, as introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the report focuses on that particular case.

Given the close links between the subsidiarity control mechanism and the political dialogue between national Parliaments and the Commission, this report should be seen as complementary to the Commission’s Annual Report 2012 on relations with national Parliaments.

ESO: Background information: The Role of National Parliaments in the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-the-role-of-national-parliaments-in-the-european-union/

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