With one hand raised to wave to the cheering crowds, a beaming Tony Blair cycled through the streets of Amsterdam, as the big beasts of the European project trailed behind him. It was his first full European summit as prime minister, in June 1997.
Across the EU there was a sense that Blair’s arrival would be a turning point not just for the UK but for the European Union as a whole. One Italian news agency greeted the new British PM as “Tony Blair superstar”.