The author presents a well-documented, comprehensive description of the bumpy road Hungary has travelled and the efforts it has made to achieve EU membership. She not only describes the problems, negotiating techniques, and the role of EU institutions and the big and small EU member states in this process but also evaluates the first years of Hungary's EU membership including its presidency of the EU. Her 'insider' report is based on the experiences she gathered in the planning office at the Economic Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences, as an expert in Hungary's negotiations with the IMF and as a member of the Hungarian team negotiating the country's membership of the EU. Her book is a reliable and unique source for all those interested in the history of the change of regime in Hungary and in the everyday functioning of the EU, especially for those striving for EU membership. She reports about the impressions she accumulated in Berlin, Helsinki, Moscow, Washington and Brussels.