THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 22 Improving the effectiveness of the Union: subsidiarity We believe two extracts from the text of CoFE Proposals 40 and 39, respectively, are important. The first one refers to the national and regional parliaments and states: “The EU should review the mechanism allowing national parliaments to assess whether new legislative proposals at the European level do not intrude on their legal competences and to be granted the possibility to suggest a legislative initiative to the European level. Such mechanisms should also be enlarged to all regional parliaments in the EU that have legislative power.” The second refers to the European constitution and calls for: “Reopening the discussion about the con- stitution, where applicable, to help us align better our values. A constitution may help to be more precise, as well as involve citizens and agree on the rules of the decision-making process.” Regarding the proposal on national parliaments, the CoFE’s idea was already put into practice in 2018, by the European Commission in particular. Like the whole set of actions and improvements comprising the EU’s Better Regulation agenda, it continues to be refined, particu- larly as far as the application of the subsidiarity principle is concerned. Concerning the CoFE proposal on regional parlia- ments, however, the Council made it clear the measure would only be possible through a reform of the trea- ties. Remember, moreover, member states themselves are free to makes changes to the form and extent of these parliaments’ power to take part in the Union’s leg- islative process, in accordance with the corresponding constitutional system ( Council of the European Union, 2022:235 ). On the subject of the proposal regarding the consti- tution, the Council’s response is illuminating: the Lisbon Treaty incorporated the essence of the failed European Constitution project of 2005 and the debate on the con- stitution in the Union is a “political process… no need for treaty changes” ( Council of the European Union, 2022: 233). The Parliament, Council and Commission’s joint response to the CoFE proposals and a general assessment of the CoFE as an exercise in participatory democracy At a citizens’ feedback event on 2 December 2022, the EU presented the full work carried out by its three insti- tutions to follow up the CoFE proposals. As well as the Council’s responses to the institution- al and governance proposals put forward by the CoFE outlined here, the Council document presented at the information event gathers the Union’s detailed response to each and every one of the CoFE’s 49 proposals and 326 specific measures. (See: Council of the European Union, 2022 ) The principles of European governance say a political decision is good if the three stages of the process -its conception, its execution and its application- are sound. According to the European Commission, and in the absence of other precise measurements that would have to be made after a reasonable time, perhaps pe- riodically, to examine application, at the end of 2022 “a considerable amount of the CoFE’s proposals were already implemented”. Given this, it seems reasonable to compare the CoFE and its follow-up with other recent exercises in partici- patory democracy, like the one that took place in France in 2019 and 2020 under the name “Citizens Conven- tion on Climate”, for instance. This is not the place to make a proper, quantified comparison of the two exer- cises, particularly in terms of results and application of the citizens’ proposals. But, given the different political dimensions (national in the French case, international in the European one), it seems reasonable to rate the CoFE as a much more important exercise in participatory democracy than the French one and, as far as we know, perhaps the greatest international exercise in participa- tory democracy in the world to date. Advisability and feasibility of a European Convention Outside the participatory sphere of the CoFE now, and after two unanswered European Parliament calls for