The future of the EU and the role of national parliaments in it preoccupied the 13th COSAC in Madrid on 8-9 November 1995. The conference was influenced by the deliberations of the Westendorp Reflection Group, which was preparing the next IGC. The Reflection Group had published a progress report on 1 September 1995, which had suggested two areas for reflection regarding the future role of national parliaments in the EU:
- Explore associating national parliaments with the Community institutions. Study the possibility of inserting Declarations 13 and 14 to the Treaty. Examine in greater detail ways of simplifying each national parliament’s task of supervising Union decisions.
- Study the proposal to create a High Consultative Council on subsidiarity composed of delegations from national parliaments.
The debate at COSAC was also inspired by the work of a parliamentary reflection group, which had been created at an informal meeting of the Conference of Speakers on the initiative of the Speakers of the Assemblée nationale, Mr Philippe Seguin, and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb. Chaired by Ms Nicole Catala, Vice-President of the Assemblée nationale, the parliamentary reflection group had recommended a number of concrete proposals on how to improve the role of national parliaments in EU affairs. The group called for the role of the national parliaments and COSAC to be inserted in the Treaty, and proposed that the EU institutions should be obliged to transmit legislative proposals to the national parliaments. The group furthermore suggested that a body like COSAC should be empowered to monitor whether draft EU legislation complied with the principle of subsidiarity.
The majority of delegations in COSAC again rejected establishing a European second chamber. The conference also discussed the possibility of mentioning the role of COSAC in the Treaty.