Future of Europe: President Juncker appoints members to Task Force on Subsidiarity and Proportionality

Today, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed six members to the ‘Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality and “Doing Less More Efficiently”‘ under the Chairmanship of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans. The Task Force will identify policy areas where work could be devolved or definitely returned to Member States, as well as ways to better involve regional and local authorities in EU policy making and delivery. President Juncker said: “The European Commission must be big on the big things, and act only where it can achieve better results than Member States acting alone. This was my message when I was campaigning to become President of this Institution and it was the message delivered by the leaders of the EU27 in the Rome Declaration in March 2017. The new Subsidiarity and Proportionality Task Force will help us to decide which powers can be better exercised at a national or local level, and respond to citizens’ expectations to take care of the concerns that really matter to them.” First Vice-President Timmermans added: “This Commission has really pushed better regulation so that we are ambitious where we must be, and modest wherever we can be. We do this on the basis of the latest evidence and broad public consultation. We need to continue this work and explore where the EU can really add value more efficiently but also empower Member States to do all that they can do better themselves. This Task Force will do exactly that.” The members of the Task Force are all politicians: Toomas Vitsut, Reinhold Lopatka, Kristian Vigenin, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Michael Schneider and François Decoster. The Task Force will meet for the first time before the end of January and present its report by 15 July. The creation of the Task Force was most recently welcomed by Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in a debate on the Future of Europe in the European Parliament on Tuesday 17 January.A full press release can be found online.