Pope Leo XIII’s Legacy in European Union Law

– The Origin and Practice of the Subsidiarity Principle in European Union Decision-Making

Abstract

The principle of subsidiarity, which also appeared in antiquity, was refined and perfected by the Catholic Church. The essence of the principle of subsidiarity is to ensure that decision-making takes place as close as possible to the individuals, thus avoiding unnecessary centralisation and encouraging effective decentralisation. The rationale behind this principle is the recognition that higher levels of government do not always have an adequate level of insight or understanding of local realities, and that decision-making should therefore be taken at the lowest possible level of authority to achieve the best quality of governance.
The principle of subsidiarity is a fundamental principle of the European Union’s decision-making system. A return to subsidiarity can play an important role in the constitutional disputes that have been revived in recent years between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. This paper analyses the evolution of the subsidiarity principle in EU decision-making and the institutions and procedures that are supposed to guarantee its application. By examining the political and legal enforceability of the principle of subsidiarity, the paper draws conclusions on the present state of the enforcement of the principle and makes some proposals for the future.