This study aimed to analyze some peculiar aspects of the principle of subsidiarity and how it has been applied since the Lisbon treaty, which established new mechanisms reinforcing its control, came into effect.The double connotation of the principle, i.e. political and legal, not always has found the right balance. Indeed from the misbalance of the two profiles emerge some critical points, which affect both the procedure to control the application of the principle of subsidiarity and the real participation of the representative state and sub-state levels to a multilevel construction.