Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity is the principle which states that matters ought to be handled by the smallest (or, the lowest) competent authority. Throughout Europe the principle is called upon by the European Commission and Parliament. In Sweden we have 290 municipalities which have the responsibility to perform the environmental supervision of the environmental legislation. In other countries in Europe it is the National body that carries these obligations. It is much more convenient and easy to conduct and transform the European legislation to a national level if it is organized like in most European countries and not like in Sweden. In Sweden we have a strong Municipal autonomy and a subsidiarity in the environment supervision. But, as the state becomes more and more a servant to the European Union, the state needs easy ways of gathering reports etc from the supervision of the EU legislation, the municipal autonomy becomes an obstacle in doing this easily.
I think we get best value of the supervision of environmental legislation by keeping it on the Municipal level, although several cities have to improve their work in this field. If the state should take over the responsibility, as suggested, we will get a decrease in supervision and a loss of competence in the environmental field in the municipalities.