The President of the Federal Council, Sissy Roth-Halvax who, together with the President of the National Council Andreas Khol, led discussion of the second block of topics at the Subsidiarity Conference, called the national parliaments the foundation of the European union of citizens and states. Therefore, she called for a much earlier inclusion of these bodies in the European legislative process.
In her opinion, this goal would be furthered by creating a simple legal mechanism for effective articulation of interests, by which the second chambers of the parliaments would be brought into the process of testing subsidiarity. There the positions of the countries would be consolidated, and this would also give the second chambers a new and forward-looking task. But in no case should the process of testing subsidiarity entail an extension of bureaucracy.
The intensified integration of the national parliaments would improve relations between citizens and institutions of the European Union, Roth-Halvax is convinced, for at the moment, people have the feeling that they are enmeshed in a dense network of national and European laws, regulations and directives without having any significant opportunity to regulate or shape them. This estrangement of the population from the European institutions and their growing fear and scepticism toward the EU must be counteracted. The efforts to achieve integration are not intended to turn Europe into a melting pot of disinterested citizens, she said. Not centralization by remote control, but federalism and regionalism will provide the opportunity to create a homeland that permits people to join in the process of thinking, judging and deciding.
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