Cross-border legislation

Polish German border (Photo: These Tides)

Cross-border legislation

Legislation covering more than one country. 

Many people argue that the EU should focus on cross-border topics and leave domestic decisions to the respective national Parliaments - under the  the principle of subsidiarity. They call for a "catalogue of competences" to be written into the treaties which would safeguard areas of national legislation against unnecessary centralisation. 

'Cross-border' is not only a key term in Euro-realist alternative scenarios, but is also used by some federalists, who think the EU could be run more democratically on a more decentralised basis. They regard the EU as too centralised, as it has more than 100,000 pages of legislation and its powers are so extensive.