Subsidiarity (European Union)

[4] The Treaty on the European Union (TEU), also written in 1992, states: "decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.

Under the so-called Early Warning System, they can submit reasoned opinions if they feel a new Commission proposal violates the subsidiarity principle (van Gruisen and Huysmans, 2020).

[9] The unprecedented development of subsidiarity in the European Union in the 1990s was caused by the increase of EU policies in the post-Maastricht period.

[12] The fiscal federalism theory therefore perceives the principle of subsidiarity as a guarantee that the decisions will be taken at central level when there would demonstrable benefits of conducting the policy by the Union.

On the other side, the school of intergovernmentalism defends a decentralized model and more decisions taken by Member States, with a process in which the local knowledge enables to take the most adapted decisions and the citizens can express their disagreement by direct contact with the politicians or leaving the region (Voice or Exit principle).

[12] For the intergovernmentalist theory, the principle of subsidiarity guarantees that decisions will be taken as closely as possible to citizens, and therefore at the lowest level possible.

The EU principle of subsidiarity is seen by the literature as sufficiently unbounded to satisfy both schools of thought and approach to centralization.

Historically the task-allocation model of the EU environmental policy has been widely criticised,[citation needed] pointing out the lack of European coordination being an obstacle to the decision-making.

Based on the ordinary legislative procedure, the EU Council (formed of the leaders of the 27 Member States) can propose suggestions of environmental legislation to the European Commission, who has the exclusive right to propose new environmental policies to the European Parliament (directly elected body) and the Council of the EU (made of Member States' environment Ministers).