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Thursday, 28.03.2024, 14:31
Task Force to show efficient EU policy implementation in the states
From
the initial steps in mid-2014, Commission President J. - C. Juncker formulated
political guidelines for the five-year’s term. Hence, the Commission focused on 10 priority
policy areas, shaping the work of the EU institution and ensuring that as much
work as possible is left to the member states’ competences. The Commission
further developed this concept in a White Paper on the Future of Europe (delivered
on 1 March 2017), which presented 5 scenarios, including one – number four- entitled
“doing less more efficiently”.
The
idea of creating a task force was mentioned in Commission President’s State of
the Union address (13 September 2017). He underlined, among other things, the
EU “shall be big on big issues and
small on the small ones”. With this in mind, a new task force with the
orientation to “subsidiarity and proportionality” will look critically at all
EU’s policy areas to make sure that the Union institutions are only acting
where “the EU adds value”. Reference to:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4621_en.htm?locale=en;
“Doing les more efficiently”: old-new concept
In the Commission’s “vision for the future of Europe”, made in March 2017, out of five possible scenarios, one (nr. 4) was about “doing les more efficiently” under which the EU institutions and the member states should step up its work in certain fields while stopping to act or doing less in domains where it is perceived as having more limited added value, or as being unable to deliver on its promises. Soundest like the old-new concept in any efficiency approach…
The work of the Task Force will contribute to the EU’s further evolution in the context of the Commission's Roadmap for a more united, stronger and more democratic Union. The Roadmap will be completed in time before the European Parliament elections at the EU’s summit in Sibiu (Romania) on 9 May 2019.
Main EU principles involved
The principles of subsidiarity and
proportionality are laid down in the EU basic law (art. 5 TEU). The
subsidiarity principle aims to
ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen and that
the EU institutions do not take action unless it is more effective than action
taken at national, regional or local level.
The
proportionality principle limits the
exercise of the EU's powers to what is absolutely necessary to achieve the
objectives described in the Treaties. An example of the application of these two
main principles is the Commission’s state aid control competence has already
been largely re-delegated to national authorities, and 90% of all state aid
measures are now in the hands of national, regional and local authorities.
Task Force’s future
The
Task Force will report to the President by 15 July 2018, making recommendations
on how to better apply the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality,
identifying policy areas where work could be re-delegated or definitely
returned to the EU states, as well as ways to better involve regional and local
authorities in EU policy making and delivery.
The
Task Force will start its work on 1 January 2018, and it will be chaired by Commission
First Vice-President in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-institutional
Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights Frans Timmermans.
The
task force will be composed of 9 members, with 3 members from national
Parliaments, 3 from the European Parliament and 3 from the Committee of the
Regions.
More information on the issue is in the following web-sites: = Decision on the establishment of a Task Force on Subsidiarity,
Proportionality and "Doing Less More Efficiently"; = State of the
Union Address 2017; = White Paper on
the Future of Europe; = Political
Guidelines of President Juncker.
References: Commission
press release -Future of Europe: President
Juncker creates Task Force on “doing less more efficiently”. Brussels, 14 November 2017.
In:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4621_en.htm?locale=en; Latvian version at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-4621_lv.htm