Martinus Josephus Maria "Tiny" Kox (; born 6 May 1953) is a Dutch politician who served as President of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

from 2022 until 2024. As a member of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(SP), he became a senator on 10 June 2003. He stepped down in February 2024, by which time he had become the longest-serving incumbent member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. On 24 January 2022, he was elected the President of the

(PACE), initially for a one-year term. Prior to this, he was for several years the President of the Unified European Left Group in the Assembly, where he has been a member since 2003.

Early career

In 1973 Kox finished an economical-judicial study programme at the School for Higher Economics & Administrative Sciences in Eindhoven. After which, in 1975, he got his bachelor of law-degree at

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands. Tilburg has a student population of about 19,1 ...

, which ended his law study. From 1975 to 1982 he worked at the

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

law centre A law centre is a specific type of not-for-profit legal practice in the United Kingdom which provides legal aid to people otherwise not able to access commercial legal support. Law centres are independent and directly accountable to the communi ...

, at which point in time he was already an active member of the SP.

Political career

Party activities

In 1981 he became

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of ''Tribune'', SP's member party magazine, while in the same year he was also appointed to the executive committee of the party. In 1982, he was elected to the Tilburg

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, where he served as the head of the local SP-group until 1999. In 1993, he became the General Secretary of the SP, the highest position in the executive branch of the party. Together with

Jan Marijnissen Johannes Guillaume Christianus Andreas "Jan" Marijnissen () (born 8 October 1952) is a retired Dutch politician of the Socialist Party (SP). Marijnissen, a welder by occupation, was selected as Leader of the Socialist Party after the death of ...

, Kox lead the party. With Marijnissen focusing on the 1994 Dutch general election, and Kox focusing on daily party-business, the duo transformed the party from a minor left-wing political group to a modern socialist party. On top of being the General Secretary, Kox was also the face of the party during the

1994 European Parliament Election The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994. This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall numbe ...

, and the campaign manager during the Dutch general elections from 1994 to 2003.

Member of the Dutch senate

During the 2003 Dutch Senate elections, Kox was elected to become a Senator. He stepped down as General Secretary of the SP and became head of the SP-faction in the Senate. In 2006, the SP was one of the big winners in the

General Election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

of that year. Kox was initially elected, but decided to stay in the Senate instead. During his career as a senator, Kox has put through some notable initiatives. Together with senators from the PvdA and the ChristenUnie, he put forward a proposal for the first parliamentary study initiated by the Senate, which resulted in the publication of Verbinding verbroken''' (''Disconnected''), a paper on the

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of government services in the Netherlands. In 2018, Kox put through a proposal that focused on categorically beating back

child poverty Child poverty refers to the state of children living in poverty and applies to children from poor families and orphans being raised with limited or no state resources. UNICEF estimates that 356 million children live in extreme poverty. It is esti ...

in the Netherlands. Furthermore, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020, the Senate accepted Kox's proposal to call on the Dutch government to structurally increase the pay of Dutch healthcare workers. In the same year, the Senate accepted a

motion of no-confidence In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an obse ...

on Kox's initiative. Something that is noteworthy, as the Senate up until that point had not accepted a motion of no-confidence in 145 years. The motion was aimed at the Dutch government's policy on rent, and nine months after Kox's motion, the government decided to put a stop to rent increase on all social housing in the Netherlands. Kox resigned from the Senate effective 13 February 2024. His membership of over 20 years made him the longest-serving incumbent senator at that point.

Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)

In addition to his work in parliament, Kox was a member of the Dutch delegation to the

from 2003 until 2024. He is currently the head of the Unified European Left Group, an alliance consisting of European green and left-wing parties. As the head of this group, he participated in the Presidential Committee, the Bureau and the Standing Committee of the assembly. On behalf of the Assembly he also wrote multiple reports on the Council of Europe. Kox also led multiple missions as an international election-supervisor in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

(2010, 2014),

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(2011, 2012),

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

(2015) and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

(2020). In 2021, his proposals on strategic priorities for the Council of Europe, were endorsed by the Assembly and presented to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers. In 2011, the Assembly accepted Kox's proposal granting the

Palestinian Legislative Council The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Palestinian National Authority, Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinians, Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the Wes ...

the status of 'partner of democracy', as well as granting them a delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On 28 September 2021 Kox was nominated by the UEL-group as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for 2022 and 2023, on the basis of the 2008 rotation-agreement between the five political groups in PACE. He was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly on January 24, 2022. This made him the 34th President since 1949 and the third Dutch national to hold this office. Immediately after taking office, Kox was confronted with Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. As President he convened an urgent joint committee meeting with the CM and an extraordinary session of the Assembly, on the basis of which Russia was first suspended, then expelled from the Council of Europe. According to Kox Russia, by invading Ukraine, had crossed the 'red line' of Europe's oldest and broadest treaty organisation, created in the aftermath of World War II to preserve and protect peace by means of peaceful cooperation on the basis of respect for the rule of law, human rights and democracy. Shortly after he was invited by the Speaker of the Verkohvna Rada to Ukraine and was amongst the first leaders of international organisations to visit Ukraine. According to him, the Russian unilateral aggression underlines the urgent need to organize a new Summit of Heads of State and Government to restore and strengthen effective multilateralism in Europe, in which the Council of Europe has to play a most relevant role. The Summit met on 16 and 17 May 2023 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Assembly-President Kox called at the opening ‘restoring, strengthening and perhaps re-inventing European democratic security and rules- based multilateralism against aggressive unilateralism has become an existential challenge and a main reason to meet here today.’ The Heads of State and Government of the 46 member States decided in Reykjavik on a future roadmap for the Council of Europe, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2024.

References

External links

*
Parlement.com biography
*
Senate biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kox, Tiny 1953 births Living people 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians Council of Europe people Dutch civil servants Dutch jurists Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of Tilburg People from Veldhoven Secretaries of the Socialist Party (Netherlands) Socialist Party (Netherlands) senators Tilburg University alumni