Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament between 2002 – 2004 is an informed politician ideally placed to offer crucial advise and information to decision makers from all industries on the European market place.
Pat Cox served as President of the European Parliament from January 2002 until July 2004. During his Presidency he campaigned ceaselessly throughout Europe to promote the enlargement of the European Union, including vigorous campaigning in the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty and the subsequent accession referenda throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
As President he made over two hundred visits to thirty-three states including all of the states of today’s and tomorrow’s European Union. He addressed twenty-four plenary sessions in national parliaments, met with the Speakers and European Committees of all national parliaments in the EU and participated in thirteen European Summit meetings. He was the European Parliament’s senior representative on the Intergovernmental Conference leading to the adoption of the proposed new Constitutional Treaty.
Starting in 1989 Pat Cox was first elected to the European Parliament as a Member for the constituency of Munster in the Republic of Ireland. He was elected three times to Parliament and served, among others, on the Economic and Monetary Affairs, Institutional Affairs and Legal Affairs Committees of the European Parliament.
He was elected President of the European Liberal Democrat Group in 1998 and played a decisive role on the question of parliamentary accountability of the Executive towards the end of the life of the Santer Commission. He was unanimously re-elected as Group President in June 1999 following the elections to the European Parliament.
Between 1986 and 1989 Cox was the founding Secretary General of the Progressive Democrats in Ireland and represented that party in Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) in the early Nineties as their finance spokesman. Between 1982 and 1986 Pat Cox worked as a television current affairs reporter and presenter. He reported on Irish and international political and economic events, including US presidential elections and United Kingdom and French general elections.
Pat Cox graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1974 and went on to become an economics lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration in Dublin and the University of Limerick. During this time he contributed to the first ever undergraduate programme for European studies at an Irish university.
"We engaged Pat to speak at a dinner we were hosting for key members of the business community in Cork. He was top class and gave a fascinating insight into the workings of the EU. It is rare that a speaker can hold an audience for forty minutes in the way Pat does. We were delighted with the feedback we received from this event." - Rhona Abbey, Marketing Manager, Ernst & Young
"We found him fascinating. We had scheduled him in for 40 mins speaking and 20 mins Q&A (and I thought 40 mins speaking was a lot for anyone!) but he spoke for about 75 mins and it was all really good. Delighted he was able to come along on the day. He gave a really interesting insight into the workings behind Europe and the Eurozone which hit home all the more as it’s such a current news item." - Orla Kavanagh, Marketing KPMG