In the tumultuous political climate following Brexit, the European integration lives on borrowed time. With the ever-increasing need for democratic legitimacy on the EU stage, the ‘Early Warning Mechanism’ is viewed by many as the last salvation. Since its introduction to the EU with the Treaty of Lisbon of 2007, it has been used to trigger a subsidiarity test three times, issuing so called ‘yellow cards’ to the Commission, and forcing it to review its proposal on grounds of subsidiarity. However, the Commission has ruled in favor of itself at every instance, making both the EU and the Member States question its efficiency. By presenting the three yellow cards, this study aims to scrutinize the Commission’s and the Member States’ involvement in the EWM while discussing their views on subsidiarity as a whole.

This essay studies the national parliaments' reasoned opinions at the early warning mechanism. The study aim to declare if there is any variation in which national parliaments who is active in the early warning mechanism, and if there is a variation in type of bills in the early warning mechanism. These study also wants to describe some variation in how the national parliaments argued in the reasoned opinions. The study gives an enhanced understanding of the importance and legitimacy of the early warning mechanism and the reasoned opinions. The result shows that there is a certain group of parliaments who are more active and these are with few exceptions EU 15 countries. The study also shows that there is some kind of bills that is more prevalent than others, there is however some variation. There is also a wide variation in the arguments raised in the reasoned opinions. The results indicate that the national parliaments varies greatly in managing the reasoned opinions and it gives a negatively impacton the early warning mechanism. / Studien granskar de nationella parlamentens motiverade yttranden inom ramen för EU:s subsidiaritetsgranskning. Studiens syfte är att beskriva en möjlig variation angående  vilka nationella parlamenten som är aktiva inom subsidiaritetsgranskningen. Studiens syfte är även att beskriva variationen i vilka lagförslag som återfinns i subsidiaritetsgrankningen, samt om de nationella parlamenten varierar i  argumentering i de motiverade yttrandena. Studien visar att det finns nationella parlament som är vanligare förekommande inom granskningen, samt att vissa typer av lagförslag föranleder fler yttranden än andra. Beträffande argumenteringen i de motiverade yttrandena fanns en stor variation.

This Master thesis focuses on the three occurrences of the so-called Yellow Card procedure, a part of the Early Warning Mechanism introduced into the EU legislative practice with the Lisbon Treaty. The analysis of the practical cases helps to shed light on the development of the interparliamenatry cooperation among the national parliaments of the EU Member States and the ability of this cooperation to affect the EU decision-making process. The work discusses how the Mechanism was institutionalised and whether it established a more direct link between the EU decision-making and the EU citizens, thus creating an additional accountability channel. The thesis addresses to which extent the Mechanism is capable of compensating the national parliaments for being cut off from the EU processes. The next task of the work is to assess how well the interparliamentary cooperation works and whether in the three practical instances the Mechanism proved to be effective. Furthermore, the thesis elaborates on whether the novelty was successful and if it realised the potential to curb the democratic deficit problem in the EU. Attention is given as well to the practical issues with the Mechanism implementation and to how the national parliaments are capable of dealing with them. All in all, the thesis at hand is a...

Aim of this Diploma Thesis is to have a closer look at current powers of National Parliaments of the Member States to influence legislative process of the European Union. The main question is how do National Parliaments control legislative process in practise. Theoretical Framework is based on a debate about Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union. First the term needs to be defined and basic arguments about the (non)existence of Democratic deficit need to be introduced, then the research question can be introduced. The main focus is on Early Warning Mechanism and a process of issueing of reasoned opinions. An assumption is that through a process of issueing those reasoned opinions by National Parliaments that consist of a democratic elected political parties a Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union could be strenghtened. It is a one-case study of Czech Parliament. All the reasoned opinions, that Czech Senate and Czech Chamber of Deputies issued, will be analysed.