“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
In an interview about the private archives he recently deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union, David Harley looked to Kierkegaard for one explanation of his career-long habit of keeping diaries of the events to which he assisted in his professional life.
“At first I kept them as a record of meetings, to inform about what happened, but then I began to see them as having an intrinsic value in themselves,” he said. “Sometimes you only realise the significance of an event later on.”
Behind the scenes at the European Parliament
Harley’s thirty-five years of service in the European Parliament (EP) were rich with opportunities to observe first-hand what was said and decided in meetings with leaders and policy makers in Brussels and around the world.
He held various positions within the EP between 1975 and 2010, including Adviser in the Cabinet of the EP President Lord Plumb and Adviser in the Cabinet of Secretary-General Enrico Vinci. He also held high-ranking appointments for the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, was spokesman of the Parliament and Director of Press and Media, was spokesman for EP President Pat Cox, and, in his final role, served as Deputy Secretary-General of the European Parliament.
Mary Carr, who worked closely with David Harley to prepare the inventory and description of the fonds, remarked that “his collection is a faithful reproduction of the internal and external workings of the European Union during a crucial period of its history, particularly during the period 1992-2010.”
The pattern of history
In a nod to current events, Harley notes that the diaries cover many visits to the Middle East following the signature of the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, when he was monitoring aid to Palestine. “There was a tacit agreement between the US and the EU to take sides,” explained Harley. “We were working on infrastructure and raising the standard of living for Palestinians. At the time, there was real hope for lasting peace.”
Harley’s diaries also reveal another vibrant thread in the pattern of EU history. “My tenure coincided with the apogee of Britain’s commitment to the EU. Tony Blair was the UK’s most pro-European politician. The UK was instrumental for EMU and a leader on enlargement. I had the great privilege to visit 10 Downing Street quite often.”
Harley’s diaries are also full of intriguing anecdotes, a result of his efforts to illustrate the human side of leadership. He recounts, for example, the day he was asked to prepare a drink for Queen Elizabeth on her historic 1992 visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “I left the drink in her rooms as instructed—2/3 Dubonnet and 1/3 gin. She later delivered an extremely successful speech, marking the only time a British monarch appeared before the EU institutions” […] “They tell me the glass was found empty,” he adds with a smile.
David Harley published his diaries in the volume Matters of Record: Inside European Politics: The Diaries of David Harley 1992-2010.
“It’s important for the public to see how things are like on the inside,” Harley said, “to see the human side of working in the institutions. I am very grateful to the European University Institute and the Historical Archives of the European Union for making this possible.”