Implementing the Early Warning System in European regions

The Lisbon Treaty has created (or modified) a number of provisions relative to subsidiarity. Among those, it has put in place monitoring instruments under the generic label of the ‘early warning system’ (EWS). Within this system, regional parliaments have the possibility to be consulted by national parliaments. Such a consultation instruments has much potential. It also generates a number of challenges in its implementation. These are due to the discretion of national parliaments to involve or not their regional counterparts, to the Commission’s right to not change a proposal, to the very short 8-week timeframe, and to the substantial additional workload this brings to relatively small legislatures. This paper takes stock of these developments to assess the 1) nature of subnational parliamentary activity under the EWS and 2) some of its potential determinants. To this end, two types of data are used. First, a series of qualitative interviews with regional parliament staff in Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the UK. Second a telephone survey of regional administrative and political élites in Germany, Spain and Italy. These data help to shed light on the actual usage and characteristics of the EWS as it is implemented in some of Europe’s most prominent regions.