The ninth plenary session of the Convention on the future of Europe, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 3-4 October, has four fundamental points on its agenda. First, the debate will take place on the report of the work group on the “Union’s juridical personality” chaired by Giuliano Amato, followed by a progress report on the work of the “Charter of fundamental rights” group chaired by Commissioner Antonio Vitorino. A report by the British MP and member of the Convention’s presidium, Gisela Stuart, on the work group reviewing the “role of the national parliaments”, is also expected. Space will also be given to the debate on the conclusions of the “subsidiarity” work group chaired by Spanish MEP Inigo Mendez de Vigo. According to the report of the work group, the principle of subsidiarity is a principle of essentially political character”, so the preventive control of its correct application must also be “of essentially political type” (with the participation of the national parliaments), while successive control of a juridical nature would be the task of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, extending the range of the possibilities for member states and EU institutions to apply to the Court. The first proposals shared by the group are three: “reinforcing the application of the principle of subsidiarity by the institutions that participate in the legislative process, i.e. the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, during the phase of formulation and examination of draft legislation; introducing an ‘early warning system’, of political nature, aimed at reinforcing the control of respect for the principle of subsidiarity by the national parliaments; and extending the possibility of recourse to the Court of Justice for non-compliance with the principle of subsidiarity”.
