The second debate of the subsidiarity conference "Europe begins at home" was devoted to discussing "Subsidiarity and Proportionality: the role of Parliaments". Andreas Khol, President of the Austrian National Council, who chaired the proceedings jointly with the President of the Federal Council Sissy Roth-Halvax, emphasised that when talking about subsidiarity, it was time to leave empty rhetoric behind and to finally get down to brass tacks. The aim was to limit EU legislation to pure principles.
According to Khol, there was no need to wait for a decision on the EU Constitutional Treaty; the Treaty of Amsterdam, in which the principle of subsidiarity and of proportionality is laid down in a separate protocol, could serve as a basis. Khol expected concrete suggestions to emerge from the discussion on establishing standards for subsidiarity control. He also expressed the hope that the Commission will take on a commitment to notify the national parliaments six weeks before forwarding a legislative proposal. These would then have time to draw up an expert opinion which would also have to be taken seriously by the Commission.
However, Khol did not see just subsidiarity control as a path towards decentralisation. He maintained that subsidiarity worked both ways, since major European questions such as security had to be solved at EU level.
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