EU: Mr Pat Cox, the President of the European Parliament, is to receive Germany's prestigious Charlemagne prize - known in Germany as the Karlsprize - for services toward European Union enlargement. Mr Cox will be awarded the prize in a ceremony in Aachen on May 20th next, just 19 days after the EU accepts 10 new members at the accession ceremony in Dublin.
"In addition to this being a very great personal honour, it is a wonderful tribute to our House as a campaigning Parliament in what will be an election year and to the European Parliament's contribution to the development of the European Union," said Mr Cox in Strasbourg yesterday.
The Charlemagne prize committee said the award was being given to a "dynamic, full-blooded European" whose trademarks are "transparency, closeness to voters and pragmatic politics".
Mr Walter Eversheim, committee spokesman said that since becoming parliamentary president two years ago, Mr Cox had, like no other, stood for a democratic Europe.
The 51-year-old former MEP for Munster was praised by the committee for his tour of EU accession countries as well as his Nice treaty tour of Ireland in a self-financed campaign bus.
The Charlemagne prize of Aachen is one of the most prestigious European honours. This year it was awarded to the former French President and architect of the draft EU Constitution, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The prize take the form of a medal, a certificate and €5,000.