National parliaments
- The Hungarian Parliament (Photo: European Commission)
The national parliaments of all of the EU Member States have special committees on European Affairs. They have established special co-operation over European affairs through COSAC.
Some national parliaments have their own representatives in Brussels to operate as an early warning system for the national parliaments.
Until now, except in a few countries, the national parliaments have not played a significant role in the process of European integration.
Recently, a common secretariat for the national parliaments was established in Brussels. The new secretariat is headed by the Dane, Morten Knudsen.
The future
The proposed Convention on the Future of Europe has proposed an "alarm bell" system. This system will allow national Parliaments to object to a Commission proposal within six weeks of its publication on grounds of breaching the principle of subsidiarity and the principle of proportionality. That is to say, breaching the principle that if something may be achieved better at a local level then the EU should not interfere.
Only if 1/3 of the national parliaments objects, is the Commission required to review the proposal.
For reasons of infringement of the subsidiarity principle, the Member States´governments can take a case to the EU Court on behalf of their national parliaments. This means that national parliaments cannot do so on their own.
In 2006 the Commission and the Council decided to send all future proposals to the national parliaments, along with sending them to the EU-Parliament. President of the Commission, Barosso, promised informally to decide according to the national parliaments statements on decisions following the principles on subsidarity and proportionality.
Links
http://www.europarl.eu.int/eucoop/default_en.htm
