Biography
Pat Cox was born in Dublin in 1952 and grew up in Limerick, the capital of the Mid West region.
He was a member of the Dáil Éireann, the Irish Parliament, in the early 1990s (1992-1994), but it is as a member of the European Parliament that he is best known. He was elected in 1989 in the Munster constituency, and then re-elected as an independent parliamentarian in 1994 and 1999. He chaired the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) of the European Parliament (1998-2002).
Pat Cox was elected President of the European Parliament in January 2002 for a two-and-a-half year term. At that time, he was resolutely committed to the enlargement of the European Union. He has carried out internal reforms in the European Parliament and has enabled it to carry out the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe. He finally represented the European Parliament at the Intergovernmental Conference on the draft Constitutional Treaty of the European Union.
He has been a member of several advisory committees at the European level, notably at Microsoft and Pfizer. He is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of Michelin, as well as the European Advisory Board of Liberty Global and Chairman of the Public Interest Committee of KPMG in Ireland.
Pat Cox holds several Honorary Doctorates, including from Trinity College Dublin, the National University of Ireland, the University of Limerick, the American University of Ireland and the Open University.
He was the winner of the 2004 Aachen International Charlemagne Prize for his parliamentary commitment to the enlargement of the European Union. He is Commander of the Legion of Honour and has received several high national awards in Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Romania.
Pat Cox became President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in 2015.
Press release of 12 December 2014 (in French only)
Texts from President Cox
Are Democracy and Human Rights in danger?, conference by Pat Cox at the Instituto Cervantes Dublin, 7 December 2023.
Europe and the Challenges of the Multipolar World – What Place in the New Order?, Lausanne, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Debates and Documents Collection, issue 29, July 2023, 12 pp.
EU Enlargement and Ukraine, Lausanne, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Debates and Documents Collection, issue 27, April 2023, 18 pp.
War in Ukraine: Confronting the new reality, conference by Pat Cox organised by the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe at the University of Lausanne with the support of the latter, 26 April 2022.
A European Parliament Election of Consequence, Lausanne, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Debates and Documents Collection, issue 11, December 2018, 21 pp.
Pathway to Brexit, Rivista Di Studi Politici Internazionali, anno 84, fasc. 335, luglio-settembre 2017, p. 331-340.
Europe after Brexit, Lausanne, Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, Debates and Documents Collection, issue 6, July 2016, 27 pp.
De la crise économique à une crise politique dans l’Union européenne ?,Lausanne, Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe, Collection Débats et Documents, numéro 3, septembre 2015, 59 pp.
From Economic Crisis to Political Crisis in the European Union?, Lausanne, Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe, Debates and Documents Collection, issue 3, September 2015, 55 pp.
Former Presidents of the Foundation
José Maria Gil-Robles
Former President of the Foundation (2009-2014)
José Maria Gil-Robles, lawyer, former President of the European Parliament and the European Movement International, former Jean Monnet Professor at the University of Madrid, served as President of the Foundation from 2009 to 2014.
Bronislaw Geremek
Former President of the Foundation (2006-2008)
A Member of the European Parliament and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Professor Bronisław Geremek chaired the Foundation from 1 January 2006 until his tragic death on 13 July 2008. The interim presidency was held from July to December 2008 by Jakob Kellenberger, former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation.
Henri Rieben
First President of the Foundation (1978 - 2005)
A doctor of the Faculty of Business Studies at the University of Lausanne, he was involved in the founding of the European Research Centre in Lausanne in 1957 and became the first Chair of European Integration.
In 1978, Jean Monnet entrusted him with his personal archives. He then became President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe, a position he held until the end of 2005.