Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union

The Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) is a conference of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national Members of Parliament (MPs) who are drawn from parliamentary committees responsible for European Union affairs.

History and role

COSAC was founded in 1989 on a proposal of Laurent Fabius, then President of the French National Assembly and at the same time an MEP on the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO). COSAC meets twice a year in the member state that holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The conference is mainly intended for personal contacts between Members of National Parliaments and MEPs, and for exchanges of information. The conference is therefore interested in the means by which the parliaments are able to co-operate and communicate with each other via interparliamentary meetings, and through the IPEX scrutiny website. The 17 Biannual COSAC report from April 2012 focused on recent developments in parliamentary scrutiny and the parliaments' use of IPEX.