Proportionality
An important principle of the treaties, stating that EU law-making should be as light as possible and not go beyond what is strictly necessary to achieve the objectives of the treaties. Also applies to EU supra-national lawmaking.
Future
Attached to the Lisbon Treaty is a proposal for a protocol on subsidiarity and proportionality. This would allow 1/3 of national parliaments to react, within eight weeks, against a proposal for an EU-law. The Commission would then be forced to review its proposal, but not to change it.
In 2006, the European Commission and the European Council have decided to let the national parliaments continuously control European proposals for law according to the principles on subsidiarity and proportionality.
Link
See Subsidiarity
