Subsidiarity (No.2)

EDM number 240 in 1992-93, proposed by Harry Barnes on 11/06/1992.

That this House notes that in the Maastricht Treaty the principle of subsidiarity is not allowed to operate in areas which fall within the exclusive competence of the community, that there is no mechanism for ensuring that subsidiarity operates in other areas, apart from appeals to the European Court in which judges will then have to decide whether a proposed action is better achieved through the institutions of the community or by individual member states; furthermore notes that the European Court is given no guidance in the treaty on how it is to arrive at such judgements; and believes that the principle of subsidiarity can only make democratic and legal sense once its distinct areas of application are firmly defined in a treaty or a constitution in which case it will be indistinguishable from the democratic principle of federalism.

This motion has been signed by a total of 8 MPs.