Early Warning System
Under the Lisbon Treaty, Regional Parliaments have a possibility to be consulted by National Parliaments in the context of the Early Warning System (EWS) (Article 6 of the Protocole on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality). In other words, they may be involved at an early stage of the EU legislative procedure to assess whether draft legislative acts comply with the subsidiarity principle.
 
"EWS Files" are designed to support regions with legislative powers in their participation in this short and early phase of the procedure. They include a background note commissioned by the Committee of the Regions, which present the status of the current legislation and potential subsidiarity and proportionality issues raised by the draft legislative act under scrutiny. Furthermore, they provide links to relevant sources of information. Finally, they give the opportunity to regional parliaments to publish and share their own subsidiarity analysis of the proposal.
 

EWS Files: 


 
 
The EWS is a procedure established by the Lisbon Treaty to enable national Parliaments to carry out subsidiarity checks on draft EU legislative acts and possibly object to the draft on this ground. Within eight weeks from the date of transmission ( Article 6 of Protocol No 2 on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality ), they may send to the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission a reasoned opinion stating why it considers that the draft in question does not comply with the subsidiarity principle. Each national Parliament or each chamber of a national Parliament may, should this be deemed appropriate, consult regional parliamentswith legislative powers.
 
The following two procedures can result from the EWS ( Article 7 of Protocol No 2 ) :
 
"Yellow card":  If reasoned opinions represent one third (one quarter in the area of freedom, security and justice) of the all the votes (each national Parliament shall have two votes), the draft must be reviewed. After such a review, the legislative initiator may decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the draft, but should motivate its decision.
 
"Orange card": applying only to EU draft legislative acts under the ordinary legislative procedure. If more than 50 per cent of the national parliaments oppose such an act on grounds of subsidiarity, the latter must be reviewed. The European Commission may then decide to maintain, amend or withdraw the proposal. If the European Commission decides to maintain its proposal, it has to provide a reasoned opinion justifying why the Commission considers the proposal to be in compliance with the subsidiarity principle. On the basis of this reasoned opinion and that of the national parliaments, the European legislator (by a majority of 55 per cent of the members of the Council or a majority of the votes cast in the European Parliament) shall decide whether or not to block the Commission's proposal.