Pat Cox - European Parliament

European Parliament

Cox left the PDs in 1994 in a dispute over his seat as an MEP. It was expected that Cox would not contest his seat in the 1994 European Elections, with O'Malley, who had a large Munster base in Limerick City and County Limerick, becoming the party candidate. However Cox then decided to contest the seat as an independent, beating O'Malley, the PD candidate. On being elected, he resigned his Dáil seat and a by-election was held on 10 November 1994, which was won by Fine Gael.

He was elected president of the ELDR group in the European Parliament in 1998 and was unanimously re-elected Group President in June 1999 following the elections to the European Parliament. He resigned this post when he became President of the European Parliament on 15 January 2002 in accordance with an agreement between the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and the ELDR groups at the start of the term (in the customary two-way split of the five-year Presidency of the European Parliament). He succeeded the Frenchwoman Nicole Fontaine. At his first press conference following his election as president he spoke positively of direct talks between the Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktaş.

In July 2003 Cox took a personal telephone apology from Silvio Berlusconi after Berlusconi managed to offend several MEPs. The controversy arose after Berlusconi compared a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp commandant.

On 20 May 2004 he was awarded the Charlemagne Prize (Karlspreis) for his achievements with regard to the enlargement of the European Union and for his work in promoting greater EU democratisation.

Cox did not contest the 2004 elections to the European parliament. The Christian Democrats (European People's Party – EPP) and Socialist Groups agreed at the customary two-way split of the Presidency of the European Parliament. Josep Borrell Fontelles, a Spanish Socialist, assumed the Presidency on 20 July 2004, holding it until 15 January 2007.

Cox is a member of the Comite d'Honneur of the Institute of European Affairs. In 2006 he was elected President of European Movement, an international pro European lobby association. In June 2009 Pat Cox temporarily stepped down as President and took over the position of the campaign director for the pro Lisbon treaty initiative Ireland for Europe.

On 15 September 2010 Cox supported the new initiative Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff, Elmar Brok.

He is a Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. He received the 2004 Charlemagne Prize for his efforts in the Eastward expansion of the European Union.