The 20th COSAC in Berlin on 30 May - 1 June 1999 addressed some of the same agenda points as the previous COSAC in Vienna, including a particular focus on institutional reform. German MEP Elmar Brok, who had been one of the two observers from the European Parliament in the negotiations leading to the Amsterdam Treaty, opened the debate. Mr Brok suggested that a special Convention, involving national parliaments and the European Parliament, should be convened to draft a European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Further discussion on revising COSAC’s Rules of Procedure also took place. No attempts were made to finalise these discussion in Berlin, but the conference agreed to establish a working group to examine the issue. This idea had been proposed during the previous COSAC in Vienna, but in Berlin it was agreed to increase the composition of the group to one representative per parliament that wanted to participate. The German COSAC Presidency proposed a plan that foresaw an interim report to be presented at the 21st COSAC in Helsinki in October 1999, with a view to adopting the new rules in spring 2000 in Lisbon. The incoming Finnish Presidency, however, proposed a plan that anticipated agreeing the rules in the working group at a meeting in early October, before the full COSAC meeting in Helsinki. Should agreement not be possible in the working group, the full COSAC could deal with any outstanding problems. This plan was endorsed by consensus.