Staten-Generaal

National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria Chair of the
Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the
European Funds
Mr Kristian Vigenin
2 Narodno Sabranie Square
BG- 1169 SOFIA
BULGARIA

date
Subj€d
our reference

Binnenhof 22
2513 AA Den Haag
postbus 20017
2500 EA Den Haag

telefoon 070 312 92 00
fax 070 312 93 90
e-mail postbus@eerstekamer.nl
internet www.eerstekamer. ni

20 March 2018
Letter regarding the meeting of the COSAC working group on 26 March 2018
162667u

Dear Mr Vigenin,
Dear colleagues,

On 26 March, a COSAC Working group meeting dealing with the Task force on subsidiarity, pro
portionality and doing less more efficiently (‘Timmermans Task force’) will take place. We would
like to thank you very much for the invitation and for organizing this meeting.
In our opinion, it is important that we discuss the topics of the Task force and that we consider
how national parliaments can co-operate more effectively. We appreciate the efforts of the Eu
ropean Commission to improve the tools that are at our disposal. However, we would like to
emphasise that we consider this Task force and its resuits not as the end of the debate, but as a
contribution to the ‘work in progress’, a part of the ongoing efforts of national parliaments to
improve the involvement in the European legislative process.
On many different occasions during the last years there have been debates during COSAC meet
ings and COSAC working group meetings in which we have proposed improvements to the formal and informal rules that exist around the tools that were given by the Lisbon Treaty to na
tional parliaments. This regarded among others the way national parliaments and the European
Commission deal with subsidiarity, eg. the tight deadline of 8 weeks, the timeliness and quality
of the answers by the European Commission to Reasoned Opinions, the possibility of including
proportionality in the subsidiarity check. Many of these improvements could be realised in the
short term, although they would need the explicit co-operation by the European Commission. In
our opinion, the current Task force on subsidiarity, proportionality and doing less more effi
ciently could have a good added value if the following proposals would be seriously considered:
Excluding recess periods from the counting of the deadline for submission of reasoned
opinions, in order to alleviate the tight deadline of 8 weeks for the scrutiny of subsidiarity.
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An open-minded and practical attitude towards the inclusion of argumentation of propor
tionality and legal base in reasoned opinions or other dialogues between national parliaments
and the European Commission.
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The replies by the European Commission should be timely and should answer to the
arguments of the national parliaments given in the reasoned opinion.
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1f legislative acts are revised, the European Commission should explain in the new pro
posal how subsidiarity concerns by national parliaments were dealt with.

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Important legislative proposals should always contain an impact assessment, stating the
analysis on the compliance of the draft legislative act with the principles of subsidiarity and pro
portionality.
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Several of these points were also extensively elaborated on in the letter sent by the Czech Sen
ate, which we therefore gladly support and co-signed.
We hope the Task force will produce some useful results, on which we can build further as na
tional parliaments, among others during the coming COSAC meetings.
Yours sincerely,

Bastiaan VAN APELDOORN
Representative in the COSAC working group on the ‘Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality
and “Doing Less More Efficiently” for the Standing Committee on European Affairs of the Senate
of the States General of the Netherlands’

Anne MULDER
Representative in the COSAC working group on the Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality
and “Doing Less More Efficiently” for the Standing Committee on European Affairs of the House
of Representatives of the States General of the Netherlands

This letter was discussed in the Standing Committee on European Affairs of the Senate on the 2Oth March
2018. The members of the fraction of the Party for Freedom (PVV) do not endorse the letter.