Cox first came to prominence as a journalist, then a presenter with RTÉ's Today 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 left the PDs in May 1994 in a dispute over his seat as an MEP.[6] It was expected that Cox would not contest his seat in the 1994 European election; Des O'Malley, who had a large Munster base in Limerick city and County Limerick, was selected as the party candidate. However, Cox then decided to contest the seat as an independent, beating O'Malley. 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 subsequently served on the Committee on Institutional Affairs from 1994 until 1997 and on the Committee 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's delegation for relations with South Africa.
When incumbent Gijs de Vries stepped down to enter the government of Prime MinisterWim Kok of the Netherlands,[7] Cox was elected president of the ELDR 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 the Santer Commission by consistently – and loudly – calling for the Commissioners to resign.[9]
Cox was unanimously re-elected Group President in June 1999, following his re-election as an MEP at the 1999 European Parliament election. 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.[10] 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.[11]
In July 2003, Cox took a personal telephone apology from Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi, after Berlusconi managed to offend several MEPs.[12] The controversy arose after Berlusconi compared a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp commandant.[13][14][15]
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.
Later career
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.[16] He resigned as president of European Movement in May 2013.
In June 2011 Irish media reported that Cox, who had previously said he wanted to stand as an independent candidate in 2011's Irish presidential election, was seeking to join Fine Gael to get the party's nomination.[18] Fine Gael's national executive on 16 June 2011 approved his application to join the party's St Luke's branch in Cork.[19] In July 2011, Gay Mitchell became the Fine Gael candidate.[20] Before that, Cox was "pleased" to help prepare Fine Gael's first-100-day strategy after it won the 2011 general election.[21]
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