“Centralistic, authoritarian tendencies always begin with a disregard for the rights of small entities. That’s an important point”, Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel said at the press conference winding up the subsidiarity conference ‘Europe begins at home’ in St. Pölten, which ended today. It was important to be sensitive to any lack of legitimacy, he continued. “It is therefore essential consciously to implement subsidiarity and respect for small entities and to uphold the rights of the regions as an antidote to the democratic deficit of the European Union that is believed to exist and deplored in some quarters”, Schüssel declared. That is why subsidiarity is not a marginal issue and why the contributions at the conference were of central importance, he continued. “Europe’s colours are like the Austrian Presidency’s logo: bright and varied. This diversity must be respected and fostered. I am therefore extremely pleased that all levels were represented at this conference – from prime ministers to the European Court of Justice. This has never been done before at a conference of this kind. We are beginning to understand that we are all in the same boat and have to do the hard work together.”
“There were signs that attitudes are changing. We set ourselves the task of tackling the issues. We will now play our part in implementing the subsidiarity principle. The legal basis for doing so exists. What has now become clear is that the political will is also there. Moderation and common sense are our most important tools on the building site of Europe”, Foreign Minister Plassnik declared. She said this would also be a contribution to reaching out to the public and addressing their worries, concerns and expectations. Günter Verheugen, the Vice-President of the European Commission, stressed that the Commission saw itself as a close partner of the Presidency in this key issue. “We are talking about the future of Europe, about the centrepiece of European policy", Verheugen said, promising he would work within the Commission to get the subsidiarity rules, as provided for in the Constitutional Treaty, taken into account and applied by the Commission in future. “Apart from this, the Commission will have to make plain for all to see, on the basis of the Amsterdam Protocol, that all the steps of the subsidiarity control process have been taken. This will have to be made transparent”, Verheugen said. He also expressed his satisfaction at the strong support from all the participants for the better regulation initiative. “This can only succeed, however, if we work together in Europe to simplify regulations, to cut the number of regulations, to modernise them and to reduce the burden of costs. There were signs of willingness to do so at the conference”, Verheugen said, in an appeal to all European and national institutions. The Prime Minister of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, remarked that the European Union is in a difficult situation, in a “pause for reflection”. It was therefore important to involve the national parliaments more closely and to give them the instrument of subsidiarity control set out in the Constitutional Treaty. "We urgently need Europe. We must therefore increase its acceptance, and we can only do that if the national parliaments debate European issues more”, Stoiber said. “I look back on this conference with great satisfaction. The subsidiarity approach is growing stronger at the European level. The debates were not just set-piece speeches, but were conducted passionately and with enthusiasm. That is an important basis for further development”, was how Governor Pröll summed up the proceedings.
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