30 October 2013

Dutch parliament calls for greater power for national MPs to "amend or recall" existing EU legislation

In a recently published position paper on the role of national parliaments in the EU, the Dutch Lower House of parliament stated that "legitimacy and support for the EU decision-making process should be established bottom-up (from the citizen)". The Position Paper states: "A good connection between the citizens and their representatives at the European decision maker is crucial. The Dutch House of Representatives wonders if the citizens are adequately involved in the discussion on European decision making. At the same time the Dutch House of Representatives asks itself which role it could play, also in cooperation with the parliaments in the EU, in order to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the European decision making process."

The paper calls for the EU’s so-called "yellow card" procedure to be strengthened, including a "decrease of the threshold" of the number of national parliaments required to activate the mechanism, which forces the Commission to review an EU proposal if a sufficient number of national parliaments object to it. Other proposals include a "green card" whereby national parliaments could propose "to amend or recall existing" EU legislation and a "late card" to give national parliaments a say on EU legislation after negotiations between national ministers and MEPs, rather than simply once a Commission proposal is tabled, as is the case now. 

Separately, Dutch VVD MP René Leegte is quoted in NRC Handelsblad saying it was the Dutch Parliament that initiated resistance against plans for an EU public prosecutor. 15 Chambers of Parliament from 11 EU Member States issued a yellow card protest against the idea earlier this week - its  only second ever, reports OpenEurope. National parliaments from 11 EU Member States - the UK, Czech Republic, Cyprus, France, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania and Slovenia - complained that plans for a European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO) breached the subsidiarity principle.

According to the Lisbon Treaty, the establishment of the EPPO requires unanimity, and the UK would have sought to opt out, but that also means that other EU countries could have pressed ahead with this without Britain. But this yellow card is another example of how national parliaments are increasingly pushing back against EU centralisation, and how little appetite there is for "ever closer union".