Better lawmaking 2000-2001: application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality

This document comprises of the Commission Report to the European Council on Better Lawmaking 2001 (pursuant to Article 9 of the Protocol to the EC Treaty on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality). Each year, the Commission presents a report to the European Council, the European Parliament and the Council on the way Article 5 of the EC Treaty has been applied. The report also goes to the Committee of the Regions and to the Economic and Social Committee. This is at the request of the Edinburgh European Council of December 1992 and successive European Councils; in accordance with the interinstitutional agreement of 29 October 1993 on how the principle of subsidiarity should be applied; on the basis of Article 9 of the Protocol to the Treaty of Amsterdam on the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The report for 2001 has been written for the Laeken European Council of 14 and 15 December and describes developments over the past year. The aim is to give a factual account of how the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality have been applied, using real life examples from the Community's legislative work. The White Paper on Governance proposed that, from 2002 on, the annual report on subsidiarity and proportionality under the Amsterdam Protocol focus on the European Union's main policy objectives.�