9.00 I wait for the locksmith to come to my flat so that the lock can be checked and in due course changed. He does not arrive by 9.30 so I lock up to go. I meet the concierge and collect new keys for the building and explain to her, rather badly, that the locksmith is coming to my flat and she thinks I intend to change the complete door. Anyway, all is saved when the chap turns up, so all is well.

10.00 Arrive in Parliament. My lunch with Thaddeus Burns and Francisco Mingorance has been put off, so we rearrange for tomorrow, I then go down to Group where we discuss the European Parliament work program and the work on the Lisbon strategy report for the Spring Council. I would like to put in some amendments to the competitiveness section, but I would have to draft it by Monday noon. Some of the IRC people are in the room as guests, hope they noted the short timescale we have to operate to. We also discuss the SWIFT data issue. How many banks are there handing over info to the US that we have not found out about?

12.30 Back to the office. I draft my report on innovation. We are only allowed 1500 characters so it has to be very compact. It can be fleshed out by amendment. I manage to squeeze in all the key points we wanted to flag, but I am sure the compactness of my drafting will give the translators something to think about.

15.30 Go down to talk to the IRC people. They are running about 30 mins late, so Fiona does not finish her session with them until 4pm and I only just get started when Graham arrives. So after a few minutes I let him on because he will have to go by 4.30. I then sweep up at the end but I think they are all a bit on overload by then..

17.00 Continue with emails and finalising report. Go back to the flat at 8pm.