An extraordinary COSAC was held in Brussels on 27 January 2003 in the premises of the European Parliament (but under the Greek presidency) to finalise the reform of COSAC and to discuss the future of the EU in order to adopt a contribution for the Convention that had just begun writing the first draft articles of what was to become the Constitutional Treaty.
As regards the reform of COSAC, some progress was made: there was general agreement that the reform should enable national parliaments to be better informed about EU affairs and to exchange best practises. Almost symbolically, COSAC also managed to adopt a set of minimum standards for national parliamentary scrutiny on EU affairs - after having inserted a number of safety clauses assuring delegations that the minimum standards were merely guidelines and not legally binding.
The model for majority voting was in principle agreed by COSAC. COSAC should still seek to adopt contributions by consensus, but in case this was not possible, contributions could be adopted with a majority of ¾ of the votes cast – constituting at least 50 per cent of all votes. However, the final adoption of the COSAC rules was postponed to the next COSAC in Athens in May 2003.
Finally, it was proposed that the “secretarial support” for COSAC could be provided by staff seconded from the national parliaments of the Presidential Troika on a rotating basis, but no agreement could be reached on the question of establishing a COSAC secretariat. The decision on this issue was therefore also postponed to the next meeting.