Pat Cox

Pat Cox (born 28 November 1952) is an Irish politician and former television current affairs presenter. He was President of the European Parliament from 2002 to 2004.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Born in Dublin but raised in Limerick, Cox first came to prominence as a journalist, then a presenter, with RT?'s Today Tonight, a four nights a week current affairs programme which dominated the Irish TV schedules in the 1980s. Cox left the programme to become a political candidate. In 1989 he was elected to D?il ?ireann as a TD for Cork South Central constituency for the Progressive Democrats, a small economically right wing socially liberal Irish party founded by Desmond O'Malley in 1985. He was also elected an MEP in the same year for the consituency of Munster

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following O'Malley's retirement from the party leadership in 1993, Cox unsuccessfully stood for election to the post, but was beaten by Mary Harney. Cox became deputy leader.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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, becoming the party candidate. However Cox almost literally at the last minute chose not to do so, and contested the seat as an independent, where he beat O'Malley, the PD candidate, easily. On being elected, he resigned his D?il seat and a by-election was held on November 10 2004, 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 January 15 2002.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He did not contest the 2004 elections to the European parliament, and the new parliament elected Josep Borrell Fontelles of Spain as its president on 20 July 2004.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

28 November: REDIRECT November 28...

1952: 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar)....

Irish: Irish may refer to:...

Pat Cox related Images and Photos (experimental)

Cox Pop	Pat Boone	Pat Neshek	Pat Hingle
Pat Benatar	Pat Crowley	Pat Burrell	Pat Benatar
Nikki Cox	Brian Cox	Nikki Cox	Nikki Cox