00405923

open access

Version of Record

ホカンセイ ノ ゲンソク ノ モト デノ EU チイキ イインカイ ノ ヤクワリ ノ カクダイ

The Enhanced Role of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union under the Principle of Subsidiarity

Japanese (日本語)

国際協力論集

12(2)

91-106

神戸大学大学院国際協力研究科

2004-10

2007-06-08

The Committee of the Regions was established by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 which introduced the principle of subsidiarity as a general rule. The principle is a guideline of the distribution of competences between the EU and its Member States. However， the author considers that the principle can also be applied to the distribution of competences between the EU， Member States and the regional and/or local authorities because the original concept of the principle is to make decisions closer to the citizens. Although the European Parliament is regarded as the most democratic institution of the EU， the main law-making competence is exercised by the EU Council. The author presupposes that the EU Council will retain their law-making powers also in the future because the EU is an international organization. Therefore， the problem of the democratic deficit will remain. To reduce it ， there are rooms for other groups to act supplementing the European Parliament. One aspect of the democratic deficit is that certain competences of regional and local authorities are now exercised by the ED. Therefore， regional and local authorities have claimed that they should participate in the EU decision-making in the area where they have competences under their constitutional or other laws. The author examines that the principle can be applied to the regional and local level， the claims of the Committee of the Regions， its enhanced role chronologically and its present operation. Lastly， the author introduces the more enhanced role of the Committee of the Regions provided by the draft Constitutional Treaty of the ED. The author concludes that the enhanced role of the Committee of the Regions is one of the remedies to reduce the democratic deficit.

紀要論文