Pat Cox | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2002 | |
| President of the European Parliament | |
| In office 15 January 2002 – 20 July 2004 | |
| Vice President | Gérard Onesta |
| Preceded by | Nicole Fontaine |
| Succeeded by | Josep Borrell |
| Leader of theEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group | |
| In office 1 June 1998 – 15 January 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Gijs de Vries |
| Succeeded by | Graham Watson |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 25 July 1989 – 20 July 2004 | |
| Constituency | Munster |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office November 1992 – June 1994 | |
| Constituency | Cork South-Central |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Patrick Cox (1952-11-28)28 November 1952 (age 72) Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Fine Gael |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6 |
| Education | Ardscoil Rís |
| Alma mater | |
Patrick Cox (born 28 November 1952) is an Irish formerFine Gael politician, journalist and televisioncurrent affairs presenter who served asPresident of the European Parliament from 2002 to 2004 and Leader of theEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group from 1998 to 2002. He served as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) for theMunster constituency from 1989 to 2004 and aTeachta Dála (TD) forCork South-Central from 1992 to 1994.[1]
Cox was a presenter withRTÉ'sToday Tonight.
Cox was born inDublin in 1952, but raised inLimerick. He was then educated atArdscoil Rís in Limerick, theUniversity of Limerick andTrinity College Dublin. He is married to Cathy, and lived at Ashboro, Shanakiel in theCork north side suburb of Sunday's Well for 16 years.[2]
Cox first came to prominence as a journalist, then a presenter withRTÉ'sToday Tonight, a four-nights-a-week current affairs programme which dominated the Irish television schedules in the 1980s. He left the programme to become a political candidate.
Cox stood as aFianna Fáil candidate at the1979 local elections.[3]
Cox was elected anMEP in1989 for the constituency ofMunster, representing theProgressive Democrats (PDs).[4] During his first term, he served on theCommittee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy.
At the1992 general election, Cox was also elected toDáil Éireann as aTD forCork South-Central.[5] FollowingDesmond O'Malley's retirement from the party leadership in 1993, Cox stood for election to the post but was beaten byMary Harney. He became deputy leader.
Cox left the PDs in May 1994 in a dispute over his seat as anMEP.[6] It was expected that Cox would not contest his seat in the1994 European election; Des O'Malley, who had a large Munster base inLimerick city andCounty Limerick, was selected as the party candidate. However, Cox then decided to contest the seat as anindependent, beating O'Malley. On being elected, he resigned his Dáil seat, and aby-election was held on 10 November 1994, which was won byFine Gael. He subsequently served on theCommittee on Institutional Affairs from 1994 until 1997 and on theCommittee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy from 1997 until 1999. In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the Parliament'sDelegation for relations with South Africa.
When incumbentGijs de Vries stepped down to enter thegovernment ofPrime MinisterWim Kok of theNetherlands,[7] Cox was elected president of theELDR group in the European Parliament in 1998, becoming the first Irishman to lead a political group in the Parliament.[8] He subsequently played a key role in the fall of theSanter Commission by consistently – and loudly – calling for the Commissioners to resign.[8]
Cox was unanimously re-elected Group President in June 1999, following his re-election as an MEP at the1999 European Parliament election. He resigned this post when he becamePresident of the European Parliament on 15 January 2002, in accordance with an agreement between theEuropean 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 FrenchwomanNicole Fontaine.[9] At his first press conference following his election as president he spoke positively of direct talks between theCypriot PresidentGlafcos Clerides andTurkish Cypriot PresidentRauf Denktaş.[10]
In July 2003, Cox took a personal telephone apology fromPrime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi after Berlusconi managed to offend several MEPs.[11] The controversy arose after Berlusconi compared a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp commandant.[12][13][14]
Cox did not contest the2004 elections to the European parliament. The Christian Democrats (European People's Party – EPP) and Socialist Groups agreed on 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 theInstitute of European Affairs. In 2006, he was elected President ofEuropean 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 initiativeIreland for Europe.[15] He resigned as president of the European Movement in May 2013.
Also in 2009, Cox co-founded theEuropean Privacy Association.[16]
On 15 September 2010, Cox supported the new initiativeSpinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the drive toward federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters includeJacques Delors,Daniel Cohn-Bendit,Guy Verhofstadt,Andrew Duff andElmar Brok.
In June 2011, Irish media reported that Cox, who had previously said he wanted to stand as an independent candidate in2011's Irish presidential election, was seeking to joinFine Gael to get the party's nomination.[17] Fine Gael's national executive on 16 June 2011 approved his application to join the party's St Luke's branch in Cork.[18] In July 2011,Gay Mitchell became the Fine Gael candidate.[19] Before that, Cox was "pleased" to help prepare Fine Gael's first-100-day strategy after it won the2011 general election.[20]
Between 2012 and 2014, Cox andAleksander Kwaśniewski led a European Parliament monitoring mission inUkraine to monitor thecriminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko,Yuriy Lutsenko andValeriy Ivaschenko.[21][22]
On 20 May 2004, Cox was awarded theCharlemagne Prize (Karlspreis) for his achievements with regard to theenlargement of the European Union and for his work in promoting greater EU democratisation.
In addition, he is a recipient a Grand Cross of theOrder of the Star of Romania and a Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Italian Republic.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the European Parliament 2002–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Common Assembly: 1952–1958 | |
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| Parliamentary Assembly: 1958–1962 | |
| European Parliament (appointed): 1962–1979 | |
| European Parliament (elected): 1979–present | |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
