Wheeler dealing

Date: 19/06/1997

EU leaders were not, in the end, allowed to cycle to lunch at the Amsterdam summit, as revealed by Entre Nous last week - but they did each take home a brand new bike.

The city's mayor, whose plan to have the summiteers pedal to their lunch venue shocked the government in The Hague, made his point about transport and the environment by handing out grey examples of the traditional bikes which are still the choice of the discerning cyclist in the Netherlands.

For ministers unable to fit the cycles in their luggage - in other words, all of them - arrangements were made to ship them to national capitals later.

And in case non-athletic government heads try to sell on their gifts, watch out for two-wheelers clearly marked with the words “Amsterdam, capital of inspiration”.