The 30th COSAC took place in Rome on 6-7 October 2003. It was the first COSAC after the European Convention had concluded its work, and the meeting was therefore used to a large extent as a first opportunity to asses the outcome of the Convention. But delegations were also preoccupied with the final negotiations for establishing the COSAC secretariat, on the basis of the guidelines agreed in Athens.
COSAC took note of the draft Constitutional Treaty which the Convention had produced. In particular, COSAC welcomed the provisions in the Treaty for involving national parliaments in the control of the subsidiarity principle via a “subsidiarity early warning mechanism”. COSAC also considered the improved rules for transmission of EU documents as significant. COSAC encouraged Member States to conduct the IGC in as transparent a way as possible and to ensure public access to all conference documents. The Italian Presidency of the Council had agreed to inform COSAC on the proceedings of the IGC. COSAC therefore called on the Presidency to report to COSAC at a special meeting of the COSAC Chairpersons later in the autumn.
COSAC also agreed on a compromise for its secretariat, along the lines set out in the guidelines from Athens, which paved the way for first secretariat to be established in Brussels from 15 January 2004 for a trial period of two years.