The 2004 enlargement—already underway before Cox’s Presidency, but incumbent on Cox to help finalise—would welcome ten new states into the European Union: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Europe’s largest enlargement would be a process fraught with the complications of expanding reforming the Union, but would also be, as Cox puts it, “the perfect challenge” and usher in a new phase of European integration.
Official ceremony to mark EU enlargement, with guests including former Polish President, the Presidents or Vice-Presidents of the parliaments of the new Member States and EU ambassadors. Pictured: François Loos, Lubomir Zaoralek, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Josef Oleksy, Dimitris Christofias, Borut Pahor, Lech Walesa, Pat Cox - European Parliament President, Anton Tabone, Peter Pithart, Andris Argalis, Laszlo Mandur © European Communities - 2004
"This is an exciting and challenging time for European politics. At the beginning of this year we have seen the successful transformation over to the Euro. By the end of this year we will face the historic challenge of turning the continental scale enlargement of the European Union into a political reality."
Other issues during his mandate would ultimately be viewed through the lens of this accession. Cox was aware of the need to bring the message of the Union closer to its people, its future members and beyond. His time as President saw him take a practical approach to communication, from getting on the road in Ireland to promote the Nice Treaty referendum, to visiting incumbent EU states before their accession, and outreach with western Balkan states.
So too his program for institutional reform would be shaped by the 2004 accession. The Nice Treaty, on which enlargement was politically dependent, required enormous effort by Cox to reach political consensus between countries on a European level, and a national (Ireland having rejected the treaty in a 2001 referendum). The Convention on the Future of Europe, the proposed Constitutional Treaty, the 2003 Intergovernmental Conference and reforms to the Statute of Members were also conceived in this environment, and influenced by the dynamics of enlargement, though of course their scope was wider than the issue of EU enlargement.
The “chemistry of consent”, as Cox refers to it, would be the driving force behind the progress of the three issues of enlargement, communication, and institutional reform throughout his presidency.