A precise response” “

It’s nor rare to hear objections being mounted against the European Union regarding its competences. There are those who maintain that the EU is “ineffective” and that its role is limited to just a few sectors; in other cases the accusation mounted against the Union is exactly the opposite, pointing the finger at an excessive number of fields or sectors in which Brussels decides “in the place” of member states. There are some who would like to extend the tasks of the EU; others would like to limit them, to avoid waste, the duplication of roles or conflicts in the attribution of functions. A precise reply to these legitimate objections is given by the recently signed Constitutional Treaty that is now awaiting ratification by the 25 before it can come into force. AN EVOLVING QUESTION; THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY. In fact, the previous Treaties has already established what are the “Community policies”, i.e. the fields of common competence, which in turn may be exclusive or competitive, in other words “shared” between Brussels, member states and local or regional authorities. A review of the successive Treaties of Rome (1957), the Single Act (1986), the Treaties of Maastricht (1992), Amsterdam (1997) and Nice (2001), will show the complex evolution of this question. The principle of subsidiarity (“who does what”), in turn, is sanctioned by the Treaty of Maastricht. According to the Constitution (Part I, Title III, art. 11), “the delimitation of the competences of the Union is based on the principle of attribution”, while “the exercise of the competences of the Union is based on the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality”. By virtue of the principle of attribution, “the Union acts within the limits of the competences that are attributed to it by the member states in the Constitution to achieve the objectives established by it”. What is not the task of the EU is the concern of the member states alone. On the other hand, in conformity with the “principle of subsidiarity, in the sectors that are not its exclusive competence, the Union intervenes solely if and to the extent that the objectives of the planned action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states, neither at the central, nor at the regional and local level”. Lastly, according to the principle of proportionality, “the content and the form of the action of the Union shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives set by the Constitution”. Any “encroachment of right” between EU and member states should end once the Constitution comes into force. COMMUNITY POLICIES AND INTERESTS OF CITIZENS. Part III of the Constitution spells out what are the “Community policies” and “functions of the Union”, i.e. it lists the individual EU institutions with their respective attributions. This part of the Constitution is of extreme importance, and future information campaigns of the Commission, aimed at familiarizing European citizens with the content of the Constitutional Treaty, ought to place a lot of emphasis on it, not least to explode some “myths” according to which the EU deals with everything, from the colour and size of fruit and vegetables to industrial production, the gas emissions of motorcycles, the length of the salmon that can be fished, the protection of “doc” cheeses, all the way to foreign policy and defence… Community policies concern: the internal market (free circulation of persons, goods and capital), economic and monetary policy and various other sectors of major importance for the daily life of citizens. Here the list is detailed. It covers such fields as: employment, social policy, agriculture and fishing, the safeguard of the environment, the protection of consumers, transport and trans-European networks, research and energy. Then there’s the major chapter of “Space of liberty, security and justice”, which comprises frontier controls, asylum and immigration policies, judicial and police cooperation. There are also the sectors in which the EU may, if necessary, decide actions to support or complement national measures, in such fields as healthcare, industry, culture and education, sport, tourism and civil protection, about which there has been so much talk after the tsunami in South-East Asia. EXTERNAL ACTION: BruSSELS LOOKS TO THE UNO. The field of the EU’s so-called “external action” is wide. It comprises common European foreign policy and security, trade policy and cooperation with third countries and the huge field of humanitarian aid in which the EU occupies the leading place in the world. Title V of Part III of the Constitution describes the EU’s external action. Its main contents are defined in article 292: “The action of the Union on the international scene is based on the principles that inspired its creation, the development and enlargement that it hopes to promote in the rest of the world: democracy, rule of law, universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental liberties, respect for human dignity, principles of equality and solidarity and respect for the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law”. In this field, the EU favours “multilateral solutions to common problems” in the framework of the United Nations.