The Commission Also Acts as a «Political Entrepreneur»

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Odd details apart, our judgment of the process which began with the Single European Act in 1986 has to be favourable. The home country principle and that of the harmonization of legislation are not at loggerheads. They are, rather, complementary actions for the effective development of the legal systems of the countries of the Union. The principle of subsidiarity too – which should be interpreted as a sharing out of fields not of action but of jurisdiction – makes an evolutionary process possible, albeit respecting the specific character of each single country. On the other hand, to believe that the process of competition between systems always leads straightway to the prevalence of the most efficient system would appear to be belied by events inside single countries. Recent experience, for example, suggests that liberalisation processes may be quicker and more effective if general rules are established to regulate them. Finally, extreme caution is in order when it comes to modifying the role of the Commission. The experience of past years has shown that at Community level, the Commission has been the body most committed to liberalization.