THE EU: Mr Pat Cox has become the first Irishman to receive the Charlemagne Prize, a prestigious award for services to European integration. The President of the European Parliament joins previous winners that include Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, Helmut Kohl, who achieved German re-unification, and former US president Bill Clinton.
The award came as the search for a successor to Mr Romano Prodi as Commission President reaches its final stages, and may have boosted Mr Cox's prospects of securing the post.
In a letter congratulating Mr Cox, German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schröder praised his work in communicating the benefits of enlargement to EU citizens, and singled out Mr Cox's role in Ireland's relationship with Europe.
"I would like to make special mention of your work to win the support of the Irish people for the Nice Treaty. This was a major factor in securing its ratification."
Mr Schröder noted that Mr Cox's term as President of the European Parliament will end soon but hinted that another EU role could beckon.
"I would be delighted to see you demonstrate the same great commitment to European unification in the future as you have done in the past," he said.
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair also congratulated Mr Cox, praising his role in enhancing the status of the European Parliament among EU leaders.
"Now, when we meet in the European Council, I am struck by the genuine engagement with the Parliament's views and how far the European Parliament has come as a major player in the discussions about the EU's overall direction," Mr Blair said.
Mr Cox has made no secret of his ambition to become Commission President but he said yesterday it was too soon to speculate on his chances.
"Nobody has asked Pat Cox to do the job. This is like the Rubicon. When we get there, we'll cross it," he said.
Mr Cox said he had also received no overtures from the Government about succeeding Mr David Byrne as Ireland's EU Commissioner in November.
"Since I made my announcement a week or two ago in Strasbourg, to borrow a line from Dermot Morgan on Scrap Saturday, I have not been inundated by a telephone call," he said.
Other possible candidates for the Commission President job include Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, British External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, and Portuguese Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino.
Mr Cox, who was joined at yesterday's ceremony in the Germany city of Aachen by members of his family and a group of political supporters, said he felt humbled by joining illustrious predecessors in receiving the prize.
"I am really proud that this year it came to the European Parliament and I am proud to be the first Irish person who has won it," he said.
Mr Cox received the award from the former French president, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who himself received the Charlemagne Prize more than 20 years ago. The citation said that Mr Cox received the award for his commitment to the enlargement and democratisation of the EU.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Cox called on EU leaders to agree a constitutional treaty next month that was both coherent and efficient, thus ending years of introspection, so that the EU could carry on with its real business.
"We need to talk about the Europe of values and not to confine ourselves solely to the sterility of a Europe of markets or the intricacies of the Common Agricultural Policy, indispensable as these may be. We must talk to people about our belief in pluralist democracy and its centrality to the European project," he said.
Mr Cox drew applause when he contrasted Europe's commitment to human rights with the abuses carried out by US forces in Iraq and the legal limbo of Guantanamo Bay.
"We must explain to people about our commitment to the promotion of human rights and our respect for the rule of law. In our troubled world of today we must insist that prisoners of war have full rights under the Geneva Convention.
"We in the European Parliament are proud that Europe has led the way on the establishment of the International Criminal Court in the fight for international human rights. We would prefer any day the due process of an International Criminal Court to its absence in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere," he said.