Competences (legislative and non-legislative), legal bases and policy areas where the regional parliament is active  

Legislative: The Flemish Parliament has different legislative competences respectively in the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. It has legislative competences in the following domains: economic affairs, health care, energy distribution, housing, agriculture and horticulture, environment, public works and transport, employment policy, culture, education, science and innovation, foreign trade and international relations. Moreover, both the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region can conclude treaties with foreign partners for each of their domestic competences. Legal bases: Articles 127 to 129 of the Belgian Constitution and Articles 4 to 7 of the Special Act of 8 August 1980 on Institutional Reform. For further information, see here (EN).

Non-legislative: The main non-legislative competence of the Flemish Parliament concerns the appointment and the control of the Flemish Government. For further information, see here (EN).

List of committees/sub-committees or working groups in the regional parliament
The committees/sub-committees include inter alia:

• Committee on General Affairs and Financial and Budgetary Matters;
• Committee on Brussels and its Flemish Suburbs;
• Committee on Administrative Affairs, Internal Affairs, Decree evaluation, Integration and Tourism;
• Committee on Housing, Urban Policy and Energy;
• Committee on Foreign Policy, European Affairs and International Cooperation;
• Committee on Education and Equal Opportunities;
• Committee on Culture, Youth, Sports and Media;
• Committee on Public Well-Being, Public Health, Family Affairs and Poverty Policy;
• Committee on Economic Affairs, Economic Instruments, Innovation, Science, Employment and Social Economics;
• Committee on the Environment, Nature Protection, Town and Country Planning and Patrimony Issues;
• Committee on Mobility and Public Works;
• Committee on Agriculture, Fishery and Rural Development Policy;
• Committee on Regulations and Cooperation;
• Committee on Legal Proceedings.

For further information, see here (NL).

Committees in charge of scrutinising subsidiarity   
There is no specific committee in charge of subsidiarity monitoring.

Staff in charge of subsidiarity scrutiny  
The Flemish Parliament has a small European Office (one full-time and three part-time staff members) whose tasks mainly consist of distributing the EU proposals to the competent Standing Committees. If asked by a Standing Committee, the European Office will give support to the Committee by preparing a subsidiarity advice.

Subsidiarity check  
Nature (selective/systematic): Selective.
Procedure: EU draft legislation is distributed to the competent Standing Committee, which decides whether to carry out a subsidiarity check or not. In practice, however, the Standing Committees do not pay much attention to the legislative proposals of the EU. The Flemish Parliament is currently working on a set of internal rules organising the subsidiarity check.
Cooperation/coordination at the regional level  
There is no structural cooperation on subsidiarity issues between the Flemish Parliament and the Flemish Government. Nonetheless, if necessary, the Parliament can rely on the expertise of the Flemish administration and the Flemish government. The Flemish Parliament maintains close relations with the Flemish Permanent Representation to the European Institutions. The staff members of the Flemish Representation regularly assist the committees of the Flemish Parliament and are very helpful for establishing contacts and obtaining information. This input can be useful for the Parliament to formulate an opinion on subsidiarity. In accordance with Article 92 quater of the Special Act of 8 August 1980 on Institutional Reform, EU legislative proposals are to be transmitted to the Parliament by the Government, but in reality, they are not. However, all EU proposals are immediately forwarded to the regional parliaments by the Belgian Senate. By Resolution of 8 December 2008, the Flemish Parliament has asked the Flemish Government to put greater effort into building a system of Impact Analysis in respect of EU legislative proposals. So far, however, it appears that the Flemish Government does not wish to commit itself to performing such impact analysis on a structural basis.
Cooperation/coordination at the central level 
In 2008, the Belgian parliamentary assemblies (at federal, regional and community level) drafted an inter-parliamentary cooperation agreement organising the participation of the regional and community parliaments in the application of the subsidiarity scrutiny mechanism. This agreement has been blocked because of persisting legal and political difficulties, and accordingly, has not yet entered into force. However, the relevant institutions generally apply it de facto in concrete situations. The regional parliaments automatically receive all legislative proposals and consultation documents of the European Commission through the Senate, with no selection or priority-setting. Each parliament can separately and autonomously examine whether the legislative proposal respects the principle of subsidiarity. A system of vote distribution is established, i.e., the two Belgian subsidiarity votes are divided between the federal and the regional levels. There is no need for a consensus on a 'level basis' to make use of the subsidiarity vote. As soon as one chamber (at the federal level) considers a legislative proposal to be in breach of the subsidiarity principle, at least one subsidiarity vote is 'activated'. Furthermore, if (at least) one parliament at the regional/community level has the same opinion, the second subsidiarity vote is also used. All reasoned opinions of the seven parliaments, together with the subsidiarity votes, are sent to the European Commission on behalf of the Belgian parliamentary system, making it clear which opinion has been given by which parliament. For the so-called exclusive legislative proposals (concerning exclusively federal or regional/community competences), the competent level controls the two Belgian subsidiarity votes. Once again, no consensus is needed; it is enough for two regional/community parliaments with a different linguistic status (e.g. the Flemish Parliament (Dutch speaking) and the Walloon Parliament (French speaking)) to consider that a proposal infringes the principle of subsidiarity, to trigger the two Belgian subsidiarity votes in the Early Warning System.