As European leaders left Laeken after the weekend's summit, some were focused on the great debate over Europe's future they had launched. Others however will have a more immediate preoccupation in the coming months - the business of fighting elections in their own states.
Next year will see general elections in France, Germany - and of course in the Republic. The first European election of the year though will be on January 15th, with an electorate of just 626 people. This is the election of the president of the European Parliament, an event which usually attracts little attention outside the parliamentary chamber.
This time, however, there is an Irish interest because the Munster MEP, Mr Pat Cox, is not only contesting the election but he is expected to win. As leader of the Liberal Democrat group in the parliament, Mr Cox backed the conservative Ms Nicole Fontaine for the job in 1999. In return, members of her European Peoples Party (EPP) have promised to support Mr Cox this time.
Although Mr Cox is the favourite, his election is not certain because the combined votes of the EPP and the Liberals are fewer than a majority of MEPs. Besides, the vote will be secret, so Mr Cox cannot be sure that everyone who promises to vote for him will do so on the day.
His most formidable rival is Mr David Martin, a Scottish member of the Socialist group and, like Mr Cox, a vice-president of the parliament. Smaller groups are fielding candidates too, one of whom is the Danish eurosceptic, Mr Jens-Peter Bonde. Mr Cox has been meeting representatives from all the groups in recent weeks and is confident that many MEPs from smaller groups, particularly the Greens, will support him in the second round of the vote. Although he stresses that the race remains open, he is already drawing up plans for his two-year term as president, should he succeed.
As one of the most gifted speakers in the parliament, Mr Cox is well placed to fulfil the first task he has set himself, which is to communicate the parliament's work more effectively to European citizens. "We need to engage as a parliament in a very basic explanation of who are we and what do we do and how do we make a difference," he says.
He wants to make the parliament it more visibly politically and to use the president's 30-minute sessions with EU leaders at each summit to discuss the real politics of moving EU laws through the parliament.
He also hopes to create stronger links with such bodies as the US Congress and the Russian Duma, partly as a means of telling Europeans that their own parliament is a significant international body.
He regards his national origins as peripheral to his candidature. "I'm not running to be an Irish president of the European Parliament. I'm running to be the president of the European Parliament who is from Ireland," he says.
Mr Cox campaigned more vigorously than most politicians during the Nice Treaty referendum but he is quick to accept a share of responsibility for its outcome. "We campaigned with less vigour than we ought to have done. The arrogance of presumption is the greatest guilt that a democratic class can have in a free society. Yes must begin with mea culpa. The second thing is that we must explain in plain but very realistic terms the extent of the self-interest of Ireland to be fully connected," he says.
Unlike many campaigners for a Yes vote, Mr Cox rejects the theory that the McKenna judgment, which says that public funds should be divided equally between both sides in a campaign, was responsible for the treaty's rejection.
"I don't buy that. The McKenna judgment is a constraining influence but it didn't stop you from campaigning if you wanted to. I think we ought to find a fair way to give the money out and let's have at each other. Raw in tooth and claw, let's tell our stories."
If Mr Cox becomes president, most of his time will be devoted to reinvigorating the parliament but as a passionate and eloquent advocate of Irish engagement in Europe, he is certain to play a significant role in a second referendum on Nice. He maintains that if the European story is told in contemporary terms, Irish people will acknowledge the "staggering" self-interest at stake.
