In fact, in line with a policy to ''legislate less and act better,'' the amount of legislation proposed by the commission has fallen dramatically in the last eight years. The construction of Europe over the last half-century has always been an uneasy compromise between national and community interests. The debate that has begun at Cardiff and will be continued at a special EU summit meeting in Austria is not a new one. The subject is called subsidiarity, and it has been around since the 1980s. Subsidiarity, a principle with which the commission agrees, means that decisions should be taken at the lowest possible level, or that which is closest to the people.
Municipal councils are responsible for the shape and spacing of streetlights, for example.
The commission has specific responsibility for foreign trade negotiations. But between these extremes, not all decisions are as easy to place in pigeon holes. Officials here acknowledge that the commission is unpopular. Opinion polls show that it is. That unpopularity is often the result of a lack of understanding.