Parlementsvoorzitter Pat Cox neemt afscheid van Brussel en Straatsburg (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - European Parliament President Pat Cox today (5 May) gave his last speech as president of the assembly, and as an MEP, announcing that he does not intend to stand in the forthcoming June elections.

"With what I can assure you were very mixed emotions, I have informed my supporters in my Munster constituency, this morning, that I do not intend to stand in the forthcoming election", he said.

His comments will fuel the rumours Mr Cox is gunning for another top job in the European Union - that of Commission President.

The other main contenders for this position are external relations commissioner Chris Patten and Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt.

Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, although he has ruled himself out, and his Danish counterpart Anders Fogh Rasmussen are also still being mentioned for the job.

15 years in the parliament

But for the moment, the Irishman is stepping down from 15 years of European politics in the Parliament. He has been a member of the European parliament since 1989, a vice-president and President of the liberal group in the European Parliament for more than seven years, and President since 2002.

"[This] has been the great experience of my working life", he told MEPs.

"Europe has been the cause of my political life ... I leave this House, but my friendship, insights and abiding respect for what this Parliament does, will never leave me".

Headline goals

When Mr Cox became President in February 2002 he set out three "headline goals" - the Parliament's contribution to EU enlargement, enhancing communication with European citizens and the promotion of internal reform, particularly MEPs pay.

On the last point, he expressed disappointment that member states failed to adopt a revised Statute for MEPs, which would have set out equal pay for all the deputies, irrespective of nationality.

"We made the compromises necessary for the Council to adopt, but at the very last moment a minority of Member States blocked this reform", he said.

"An arrangement whereby members of the same parliament have 25 different legal and financial regimes is neither desirable nor tenable in the long term".

The issue hit the headlines recently when Austrian independent MEP Hans-Peter Martin said he had evidence of 7,200 cases where EU-parliamentarians falsely claimed daily expenses.

These allegations have been fiercely rejected by MEPs, including Pat Cox himself, who said Mr Martin's allegations were based on "zero evidence".

Praised

Mr Cox's job at the helm of the European Parliament was welcomed by his fellow MEPs.

"You will always be regarded as one of the great presidents of the European Parliament", the leader of the biggest group EPP-ED, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said.

"You know that the socialist group did not vote for you, but today the socialists have applauded your speech", the Socialist group leader, Enrique Barón Crespo said. "Welcome to the club of the former presidents of the European Parliament".

And the Liberal leader of the European parliament Graham Watson said, "We are proud that the first Liberal President of this House for twenty two years has also been one of the most successful".