Parliament plot
Giving more voice to national legislatures will not enhance the EU’s legitimacy
IN FOOTBALL two yellow cards are enough to get a player sent off. But in the European Union three may pass with nary a word. Under the EU’s “yellow card” system, if one-third of the union’s national parliaments think that a proposed law tampers with matters better handled nationally, they can force the European Commission to reconsider it. Before this year parliaments had issued two yellow cards, once against a law limiting workers’ right to strike and once against establishing an EU-wide prosecutor’s office. The commission rejected the card both times (though it withdrew the strike law for other reasons).
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Parliament plot”
From the July 23rd 2016 edition
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