CONCLUSIONS OF THE XLVIII COSAC
Nicosia, 14 – 16 October 2012
1. Bi-annual Report
COSAC welcomes the 18thBi-annual Report prepared by the COSAC Secretariat and warmlythanks the Secretariat for its excellent work. The Report provides comprehensive and usefulinformation on the relations between the European institutions and national Parliaments, on therole of parliaments regarding the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance, and on theparliaments’ involvement in examining the proposed EU legislation on Trans-European EnergyInfrastructure and the EU Communication on the Single Market Governance.2. Subsidiarity and proportionality
2.1 COSAC notes that almost all national Parliaments take the principle of proportionality intoconsideration when examining draft legislative acts, even though in many cases it is notconsidered as a principle of an equal status to the subsidiarity principle under the Lisbon Treaty.Even though national parliaments are divided over the issue whether proportionality is aninextricable component of the subsidiarity principle, the majority of national Parliaments are ofthe opinion that a subsidiarity control is not effective enough if a proportionality check of theproposal at hand is not conducted.2.2 COSAC takes particular interest in a number of proposals submitted by national Parliamentsstressing the need for a more uniform interpretation of what constitutes a breach of thesubsidiarity principle and the further clarification of the methodology used to performsubsidiarity checks. Given the different approaches among Parliaments regarding the waysubsidiarity criteria are applied in practice, COSAC encourages Parliaments to exchangeinformation regarding their relevant practices, in order to make subsidiarity control moreeffective, through the better understanding of the processes utilised by each nationalParliament. Furthermore, a slight majority of national Parliaments (20-17) are in favour offormally laying down or establishing specific guidelines regarding the scope and content ofreasoned opinions.23. Political dialogue
3.1 COSAC recognises the importance of the political dialogue as a confidence building toolamong the citizens and the Union and it welcomes the suggestion expressed by nationalParliaments with regard to its further enhancement. COSAC, therefore, encourages nationalParliaments to make further efforts towards the strengthening of cooperation in the frameworkof the political dialogue as documented in the 18thBi-annual Report.3.2 COSAC supports closer cooperation between national Parliaments to discuss proposals thatare of particular concern and for which a large number of reasoned opinions were issued, eventhough the threshold set out under the Lisbon Treaty for reconsideration on the part of theCommission was not met.4. The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union
and the role of Parliaments
4.1 COSAC takes note of the provisions of Article 13 of the Treaty on the Stability, Coordinationand Governance in the Economic Monetary Union, reiterating the importance of reinforcinginterparliamentary cooperation between the European Parliament and national Parliaments inthe field of economic governance and stresses that it applies to all parliaments of the EU.4.2. COSAC has initiated a dialogue and exchanged views on the way that this cooperation couldbe optimized, examining the form that this reinforced cooperation should take. It, therefore,expressed the view that this dialogue should be continued in the future.
