He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1989 to 2004 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South-Central from 1992 to 1994.

[2] 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.

[5] Following Desmond O'Malley's retirement from the party leadership in 1993, Cox stood for election to the post but was beaten by Mary Harney.

[8] He subsequently played a key role in the fall of the Santer Commission by consistently – and loudly – calling for the Commissioners to resign.

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.

[17] On 15 September 2010, Cox supported the new initiative Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the drive toward federalisation of the European Union (EU).

Other prominent supporters include Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff and Elmar Brok.

[18] Fine Gael's national executive on 16 June 2011 approved his application to join the party's St Luke's branch in Cork.

[22][23] On 20 May 2004, Cox was awarded the Charlemagne Prize (Karlspreis) for his achievements with regard to the enlargement of the European Union and for his work in promoting greater EU democratisation.