THERE may be 28 countries in the European Union – soon to be 27, unless our Government betrays us – but its soul is French. That crucial fact goes a long way to explaining why the EU is apparently determined to make Brexit as miserable and tortuous as possible — even at the cost of harming itself. France isn’t an economic powerhouse, unless you are comparing it to Venezuela. But the culture of the EU is unmistakably French, and we’re not talking about the elegance of the Parisian catwalk or the rustic cuisine of sun-baked Provence. The Common Market was founded by Frenchmen. Alas, little remains of their idealism. Instead, the European Commission has inherited a Gallic mixture of inflexibility, defensiveness and — only a French word will do — hauteur. Hauteur implies looking down on people. That’s a challenge for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who’s unkindly rumoured to wear elevator shoes. But no doubt he’ll manage it when, tomorrow, Mrs May travels to France to beg him to rein in the EU’s bloody-minded chief Brexit negotiator, his fellow Frenchman Michel Barnier. The presence at the heart of the Brexit talks of two deeply ambitious Frenchmen — Barnier is desperate to become president of the European Commission — is very bad news for Britain. Macron and Barnier share a haughtiness rooted in France’s deep insecurity. That’s understandable. France has a lot to be insecure about, especially when you compare it to Britain, whose GDP is growing faster than France’s…. [Read full story]
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