Catalonia's place in the EU: the principle of subsidiarity
The President of the European Commission recently stated that proposed regulations concerning the European Union's Structural Funds will be reviewed, as this newspaper announcedThe reason for this review lies in the demands of, among others, some parliaments of the member states, such as the German Bundesrat.
The European Commission's initial proposal reduced the role of the regions in negotiations with the Commission and in the management of funds. This prompted a formal complaint from the Bundesrat, at the initiative of the state of Bavaria, alleging a violation of the principle of subsidiarity, regarding a proposed regulation establishing the European Fund for Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion, Agriculture and Rural Areas, Fisheries and the Sea, Prosperity and Security for the 2020 period.
In relation to this proposal, the Parliament of Catalonia adopted a reasoned opinion in which it defended the participation of the Generalitat of Catalonia in the determination of the objectives and in the management of the funds, in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (BOPC 317, October 7, 2025, p. 24).
This opinion was adopted by the Committee on European Union and Foreign Action of the Parliament of Catalonia, in compliance with its oversight function regarding the principle of subsidiarity and the procedure established in European and Spanish law. The opinion was then sent to the Joint Congress-Senate Committee for the European Union, the competent body for liaising with EU institutions in the parliamentary sphere on behalf of Spain. This body concluded that the proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity, but did not forward it to the EU institutions, meaning that the Parliament's opinion has not been made known to the EU. The report concluding the procedure merely mentions, in its background section, that the Parliament of Catalonia submitted a document, without referring to the Parliament's observations (Official State Gazette, November 5, 2025, No. 187, p. 11). No other regional parliament submitted an opinion.
Under the procedure for verifying the principle of subsidiarity, established by the Treaty of Lisbon, national parliaments and regional parliaments with legislative powers must be consulted on the conformity with the principle of subsidiarity of all draft legislative acts of the institutions of the European Union.
The purpose that underlies and gives meaning to the control procedure of the principle of subsidiarity is to guarantee the maximum effectiveness of the level of power that acts, with the limits and powers legally established.
The Parliament of Catalonia has exercised this function since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. It has examined approximately 1,500 EU legislative initiatives, adopted some seventy opinions on their compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, and provided observations on their content. All this work has been submitted, in accordance with the established procedure, to the Joint Congress-Senate Committee for the European Union. The European Parliament has referred to the actions of the Parliament of Catalonia. as a fairly active parliament at an initial stage of the legislation.
The Lisbon Treaty suggests that one of the primary objectives of establishing the principle of subsidiarity was to integrate European policy into the daily work of parliaments, thereby bringing this policy closer to members of parliament and, ultimately, to citizens, and thus addressing criticisms of the democratic deficit in the institutional system. The procedure for monitoring the principle of subsidiarity, as currently regulated in the Lisbon Treaty and in Spain, does not, in itself, contribute to this objective of integrating European policy into the daily work of the Parliament of Catalonia. This is, in my view, due to a series of problems, stemming from both the regulations themselves and from practical experience, which have become evident in the Parliament's exercise of this function.
A first problem stems from the fact that the regulations frame this function as an information process, rather than a participatory one, regarding European Union legislative initiatives at a fairly advanced stage of the EU legislative process. A second problem arises because the European Union institutions' awareness of the Catalan Parliament's opinion is subordinated to and mediated by a prior decision of the Joint Congress-Senate Committee. A third problem arises from the fact that the object of analysis, as stipulated in the regulations, focuses more on the consideration of technical and legal aspects, such as issues related to subsidiarity, than on the substantive content of the proposals, leading to a lack of interest among members of parliament.
In the European Union's regulatory framework, it would be advisable, in my opinion, to consider a reform of the procedure for controlling the principle of subsidiarity that would fundamentally allow both national and regional parliaments with legislative powers to directly convey to the Union legislator their views and material interests regarding the content of draft legislative acts.
