The Origins of the Principle of Subsidiarity in the European Law from the Beginnings of the European Union until the Treaty of Maastricht

Abstract

In the present text we chose to present some of the main aspects concerning one of the key principles of the European law – the principle of subsidiarity. Hence, we centered our attention on the general aspects concerning the concept of subsidiarity, on the process of transforming the concept of subsidiarity into a principle, and in the end, on presenting the principle of subsidiarity in the European law until the Treaty of Maastricht that consecrated it as a principle of the European Law. In this last part of the paper, we presented the principle of subsidiarity in comparison with other two key principles: the principle of conferring competences and the principle of proportionality.