Matters of Record

David Harley was an official at the European Parliament, ending his career as deputy secretary-general. Most of the entries in these diaries are from the period when he was successively Parliament's director of press and media (1999-2002), spokesman for Parliament's president Pat Cox (2002-2004) and secretary-general of the Socialist Group (2004-2007). Based on the detailed notebooks he kept at the time, the diaries are a faithful and unvarnished record of meetings of political figures around Europe, in Washington and the Middle East. The period of most of the diary entries was one which saw the first flush of enthusiasm of New Labour for the EU begin to lose its bloom, deep divisions within the EU and with the USA over the war in Iraq, and constant wrangling over treaty reform. But most of all these were the years of optimism. With the accession of new member states from Eastern Europe redefining what 'Europe' was and could be, the successful introduction of the euro binding the national economies, and a continuing expansion in the role of the EU institutions, not least the Parliament, this was a time when the wind was truly in the sails of the European project. 'An insight into what went on behind closed doors, as seen through the meetings, faces and places through which David Harley's first-hand narrative unfolds.' Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament 2002-2004 'Peppered with anecdotes, these entries offer a fascinating account of what goes on behind the scenes and in the wings of the European and world stages.' John Hooper, The Economist Correspondent in Italy and the Vatican