SUBSIDIARITY AND EUROPEAN UNION - BEYOND THE IDEOLOGICAL IMPASSE - AN ANALYSIS OF THE ORIGINS AND IMPACT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY WITHIN THE POLITICS OF THE EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY

Over the last decade in European Community politics the principle of subsidiarity has increased in significance as a political value in the debate between federalists, regionalists and sovereign nationalists. This significance culminated in a statement of policy, built around the principle, written into the Treaty of European Union. The statement was agreed on both sides of the political spectrum, not as a symbol of a new ideological convergence but on the basis of the belief, held by all, that the principle would serve their own aims. Clearly, this is not possible, and as a result, a useful political concept which promises so much in fact delivers little, remaining impotent in practical terms and of little consequence, as things presently stand, to future Community developments.