Subsidiarity (European Union)
"Subsidiarity" is a big and difficult word that people in the European Union use to talk about how to make decisions about things that affect different countries in the EU.
Imagine you are playing with a bunch of toys with your friends. Sometimes you argue with your friends about who gets to choose which toy to play with next. One way to solve the argument is to let the oldest kid choose all the toys, or can a random kid be chosen, but that might not be fair to everyone.
In the EU, they want to make sure everyone has a fair say in what toys to play with, so they came up with a rule called subsidiarity. This rule says that decisions should be made by the people who are closest to the toys that are being played with.
Let's say one toy breaks and needs to be fixed. The people who are closest to the toy can easily fix it themselves, so they should be the ones to fix it instead of someone who is far away and doesn't know much about the toy.
The EU wants to use this rule to make sure that decisions about things like how to protect the environment or how to set rules for trade are made by the people who are closest to the problem. This way everyone has a say in what they think is best for themselves and their country.
Imagine you are playing with a bunch of toys with your friends. Sometimes you argue with your friends about who gets to choose which toy to play with next. One way to solve the argument is to let the oldest kid choose all the toys, or can a random kid be chosen, but that might not be fair to everyone.
In the EU, they want to make sure everyone has a fair say in what toys to play with, so they came up with a rule called subsidiarity. This rule says that decisions should be made by the people who are closest to the toys that are being played with.
Let's say one toy breaks and needs to be fixed. The people who are closest to the toy can easily fix it themselves, so they should be the ones to fix it instead of someone who is far away and doesn't know much about the toy.
The EU wants to use this rule to make sure that decisions about things like how to protect the environment or how to set rules for trade are made by the people who are closest to the problem. This way everyone has a say in what they think is best for themselves and their country.