The Principle of Subsidiarity in the Treaty of Lisbon, a New Role for National Parliaments?

The principle of subsidiarity within the European Union (EU) is sanctioned in Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU ) and in the Protocol No.2 “On the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality†. Its main function is to regulate the exercise of competences of EU institutions in areas where these powers are shared with Member States of the Union, with the aim that, as also required by Article 5 of TEU, the proposed action can rather be better achieved at Union level. Regarding national parliaments, according to Article 12 of TEU their general institutional role is to “contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union†. Also, referred to paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the TEU, Protocol No 1 "On the role of national parliaments in the European Union" and “On the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality†national legislatures are charged with the duty to check the correct application of the principle of subsidiarity by the institutions of the Union. For this pupose a new mechanism is introduced, known as the Early Warning System (EWS). The purpose of this paper is the analysis of the provisions on the EWS in order to evaluate the protection that the Treaty of Lisbon provides for the subsidiarity principle and consequently the role played by national legislatures in the EU legislative procedures.