On Thursday 23 January 2014 Clingendael hosted a closed seminar on subsidiarity and its relevance for better EU governance. In the context of this possible squeeze between the push for deeper integration and rising public resentment about the way ‘Brussels’ runs affairs, this seminar dealt with the question whether subsidiarity can offer a way forward that reconciles needs for better EU governance and concerns about legitimacy. Subsidiarity has been raised at different levels of government.
This seminar hoped to take stock of the state of the subsidiarity debate and see what opportunities it holds in store for the next years. Speakers at the seminar included Frans Timmermans, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, Uwe Corsepius, Secretary General of the Council, Marianne Klingbeil, Deputy Secretary General at the Commission, Sylvie Goular, MEP for Mouvement Démocrate/ALDE, and several high level policy officials from the member states.