EU arrogance might yet cause a bigger problem than Brexit

While Britain has struggled to find an agreed way forward on how to depart the EU (hardly surprising given the narrow result in 2016 and the hung parliament post 2017) Mr Verhofstadt expresses unbridled exasperation at Westminster’s twists and turns.

This week he was again outspoken, saying on Twitter: “What we will not let happen, deal or no deal, is that the mess in British politics is again imported into European politics. While we understand the UK could need more time, for us it is unthinkable that article 50 is prolonged beyond the European Elections.”

The mess in British politics, as he calls it, is replicated across EU, so is certainly not the UK’s fault. In fact, it is more pronounced elsewere. Most main European countries, including France and now Germany, have large hard right movements, which the UK does not.

The concerns about immigration are not only EU-wide, they are greater in most of mainland Europe than here after the Syria wave of migrants from 2015. The UK is clearly in a difficult place just now. Mr Verhofstadt says with open impatience that Article 50 will not go beyond May.

It seems to give him great pleasure to hector Britain publicly but Mr Verhofstadt is indicative of a dismissive thinking that might yet cause a bigger problem for the EU than Brexit, given the continent-wide concerns about policy failures that are being attributed to the EU.