What Unique Aspects of European History Should Shape a Constitution for a European Union?
The debate on the organization of European Union has to a large extent centered on the principle of “subsidiarity.” This principle requires that the EU’s political bodies should be subsidiary to the citizen’s own initiatives and decisions. Their task is to facilitate these, not to replace them. Any decision on political intervention should accordingly be taken at the lowest possible efficient level. Within the EU bureaucracies and ministerial councils the concept of subsidiarity has been interpreted as “vertical subsidiarity,” meaning that the EU shall not decide anything − outside the topics defined in the Union treaties − that a regional body or a member state can decide with greater sensitivity, knowledge, or efficiency. Since the topics covered by treaties have become very extensive the sway of subsidiarity is limited indeed. In addition, it has been generally forgotten that there exists also a possibility of “horizontal subsidiarity,” meaning that the public sector should not atte
