Guy Verhofstadt, MEP, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, said today, in a debate on 'Future of the EU', at the Europe House, that what William Hague is asking, a "red card" system, already exists. However, we have 'yellow card' system, which, in fact, does not work.
It is important to recall that under the Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality, National Parliaments may submit, within eight-weeks, from the date of transmission of the legislative proposal, to the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, a “reasoned opinion stating why it considers that the draft in question does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity.” However, the EU institutions are only required to take account of the national Parliament reasoned opinions. Then, if one-third of National Parliaments object to a legislative proposal on subsidiarity grounds, the draft must be reviewed. But, the Commission “may decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the draft.” Thus, it is free to retain the proposal. Moreover, it is important to note that one third is a high threshold and very difficult to achieve. In fact, the threshold for a ‘yellow card’ has never been reached.
The above-mentioned Protocol also provides, “If, by a majority of 55% of the members of the Council or a majority of the votes cast in the European Parliament, the legislator is of the opinion that the proposal is not compatible with the principle of subsidiarity, the legislative proposal shall not be given further consideration.” Nevertheless, as the European Scrutiny said “(…) since this degree of opposition would in any event be sufficient to prevent adoption of a measure by co-decision, we consider that the procedure adds very little by way of democratic control over the Commission and the EU institutions.” The ESC believes that “the required thresholds for preventing further consideration of a proposal must be much lower if the procedure is to have any real utility.”
On 31 May, the Foreign Secretary, in his speech to the Konigswinter Conference in Germany, said, “We should explore whether the yellow card provision could be strengthened or extended to give our parliaments the right to ask the Commission to start again where legislation is too intrusive, and fails the proportionality test.” Then, he suggested, “we should think about going further still and consider a red card to give national parliaments the right to block legislation that need not be agreed at the European level.”
