In accordance with Article 5(3) of the same Treaty, ‘under the principle of subsidiarity, […] the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level’.
Člen 5(3) te pogodbe določa, da „v skladu z načelom subsidiarnosti Unija deluje na področjih, ki niso v njeni izključni pristojnosti, le če in kolikor države članice ciljev predlaganih ukrepov ne morejo zadovoljivo doseči na nacionalni, regionalni ali lokalni ravni, temveč se zaradi obsega ali učinkov predlaganih ukrepov lažje dosežejo na ravni Unije“.