Malcolm John Charles Harbour,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 19 February 1947), is a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

between 1999 and July 2014. He is a member of the

European Conservatives and Reformists The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is a soft Eurosceptic, anti- federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR Party) European pol ...

Group and the chairman of the

Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) is a committee of the European Parliament. Work of the committee The committee is responsible for: * coordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of th ...

Education and qualifications

Harbour was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

(1960–64),

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

(1964–67) where he graduated in engineering, and at

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...

(1967–70) where he gained a diploma in management studies.European Parliament profile: Malcolm HARBOUR MEP
In July 2008 he was awarded an honorary DSc by

for services to science, technology and the European Union.

Motor industry

Harbour spent 32 years in the motor industry, as an engineer, a senior commercial executive, a consultant and a researcher. In 1992 he became a founding director of the International Car Distribution Programme and in 1998 initiated the 3DayCar Programme, studying the reconfiguration of the automotive supply chain. He began his motor industry career in the BMC

Longbridge Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire. Public Transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Coa ...

Plant as an Austin Engineering

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

in 1967. After working as a design and development engineer, he spent eight years planning and managing new product programmes in the Rover Triumph Division. In 1980 he became Strategic Planning Director for

Austin Rover The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland C ...

, in 1982 Marketing Director, in 1984 UK Sales Director and 1986 Overseas Sales Director. In 1989, he jointly founded the specialist consultants Harbour Wade Brown.

European Parliament

Harbour became an active member of the

in 1972. He first stood for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

in 1989 in the constituency of Birmingham East but failed to win election. He missed out again in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, before finally, in 1999, being placed high on the Conservative list for the new multi-member West Midlands region constituency, ensuring his election in the

1999 European Parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and ...

. He was re-elected in June 2004 and 2009. He is one of three Conservative members representing the West Midlands Region of the UK. He is chairman of the

and is a Member of the

Group. He is vice-chairman of the Parliament's Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA) and a Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Delegation to Japan. Harbour takes a special interest in the EU Single Market, industry, science and technology policy. He is chairman of the European Manufacturing Forum, the Ceramics Industry Forum and the Conservative Technology Forum. He is a governor of th
European Internet Foundation
He has been the lead MEP (rapporteur) for major legislation on Telecoms, the Single Market and Motor Vehicle standards. Since 2005, he has served on the CARS 21 High Level Group, a Europe-wide initiative to boost the automotive industry. He was named as a top 50 European of 2006 for his key role in broking agreement on the Services Directive. In May 2006, he was named the UK's most Small Business Friendly UK Parliamentarian by members of the Forum of Private Business. In September 2010, he was voted Internal Market MEP of the Year. Harbour was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to the British economy.
Cabinet Office

Personal life

Harbour married his wife, Penny, in 1969. He has two daughters, Louise and Katy, and four grandchildren. He lives in

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

. His interests include travel, cooking, choral singing and motor racing.Malcolm Harbour MEP
, West Midlands Conservative MEP team.

Footnotes

External links

Profile on European Parliament website

MEP Malcolm Harbour backs Birmingham Post's Jaguar Land Rover campaign
* FFII view * https://web.archive.org/web/20090323004422/http://blog.ldv.com/blogs/ldvblog.nsf/dx/malcolm-harbour-mep-electric-maxus-test-drive.htm?opendocument&comments **FFII U

and

software patent A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, libraries, user interface, or algorithm. Background A patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a state to a patent holder for a limited period of time, u ...

s ** FFII o
Malcolm Harbour

Malcolm Harbour
— updated wiki page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbour, Malcolm 1947 births Living people People educated at Bedford School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of Aston University Conservative Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 MEPs for England 2009–2014 Commanders of the Order of the British Empire