This book analyses and evaluates Europe's experience with Early Warning System (EWS) which allows national parliaments to review draft legislative acts of the European Union for their compatibility with the subsidiarity principle. The EWS was introduced in response to the perceived 'democratic deficit' of the EU and its 'creeping' competences and represented one of the landmark reforms of the Lisbon Treaty. The purpose of this book is present and critically analyse the functioning of the new mechanism of subsidiarity review and the role that national parliaments have played within this...

"The Lisbon Treaty states that national Parliaments shall contribute to a better functioning of the EU. Can they really do it and therefore enrich the European democracy? How far can they extend their original sovereignty without distorting political responsibilities that should be geared upon the European Parliament? The authors analyze the experience of the Italian Parliament under the light of these crucial questions and their exhaustive answers are greatly helpful to the readers of all over Europe."--Judge Giuliano Amato, Italian Constitutional Court ***This important new collection...