subsidiarity

noun · Subsidiarität

Subsidiarität, Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV: in areas that are not within the Union’s exclusive competence, the Union acts only if and so far as the objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can be better achieved at Union level. It governs the exercise of a competence, not whether one exists.

Which translation, when

nur außerhalb der ausschließlichen Zuständigkeitthe scope: subsidiarity, Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV, applies only in areas that are not within the Union’s exclusive competence; in an exclusive competence only the Union may act and subsidiarity does not bite, so applying it across the board overstates its reach.

der Zweistufentestthe test: the Union may act only where the objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States at central, regional or local level and can, by reason of its scale or effects, be better achieved at Union level, so both limbs, insufficiency below and added value above, must be met.

Ausübung, überprüfbarthe frame: subsidiarity governs the exercise of a competence the Union already has, Art. 5 Abs. 1 Satz 2 EUV, is applied under Protocol No. 2 with a role for national parliaments, and can be reviewed by the Court, so it is a legal control, not a slogan.

Why

Subsidiarity is Subsidiarität, and it presupposes that the competence question is already settled. Under Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV, in areas outside the Union’s exclusive competence, the Union acts only if and so far as the aims of the proposed measure cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, at central or regional or local level, and can rather, by reason of scale or effects, be better achieved at Union level. Two things follow. First, the principle bites only in shared and supporting competences: where the Union has exclusive competence, only it can act and subsidiarity has nothing to do. Second, the test has two limbs, insufficiency at Member-State level and comparative advantage at Union level, and both must be satisfied. Structurally, subsidiarity sits with proportionality on the exercise side of Art. 5, Abs. 1 Satz 2, the question whether and how the Union should use a competence, as against conferral on the existence side. It is applied under the Protocol on subsidiarity and proportionality, gives national parliaments an early-warning role, and is justiciable before the Court of Justice. So the word maps as a direct cognate, but it should not be stretched to exclusive competences or read as a mere political aspiration.

Typical mistakes

Subsidiarity, Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV, applies only outside the Union’s exclusive competence, so presenting it as a limit on the Union in every field overstates it.
Its test has two limbs, insufficiency at Member-State level and better achievement at Union level, so citing only one understates the threshold.
It governs the exercise of an existing competence, not whether a competence exists, which is conferral, so the two should not be merged.

What matters

Rendering a question about whether the Union should act, the translation should use Subsidiaritätsprinzip, confine it to areas of non-exclusive competence, and state the two-limb test of Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV. It should be kept apart from conferral, which asks whether a competence exists at all, not whether it should be used.

Authority

Art. 5 Abs. 1 EUV
Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV

What the machine misses

Machine output renders subsidiarity as Subsidiarität but may then treat it as a general brake on the Union. It loses that Art. 5 Abs. 3 EUV confines it to areas outside the Union’s exclusive competence, that its test has two limbs, and that it governs the exercise rather than the existence of a competence. The rendering overstates its reach and drops the threshold.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

the principle of subsidiarity	das Subsidiaritätsprinzip
in areas of non-exclusive competence	in Bereichen nicht ausschließlicher Zuständigkeit
better achieved at Union level	besser auf Unionsebene zu verwirklichen
a subsidiarity check	eine Subsidiaritätsprüfung