The relationship between Britain and the EU looks like a marriage gone bad. Rows are becoming more and more frequent. The two parties are talking openly about separation. The chances that Britain will eventually leave the EU are rising inexorably. This weekend an opinion poll showed that 56 per cent of Britons now want out.
In Brussels, this possibility is increasingly greeted with a resigned shrug. It is widely believed that David Cameron is behaving in an impossible fashion. At this week’s summit, the UK prime minister is likely to be the only leader arguing for a freeze in the EU budget. Many in Brussels now believe that the union would work better without a British wrecking crew on the inside. In the long run, they say, it is the British themselves who will suffer.
That is the conventional argument. But it is dangerously short-sighted. Britain might well suffer if it leaves the union. But so would the EU itself. The idea that British demands are so unreasonable that they can never be met is simply wrong. A few eye-catching changes in Britain’s relationship with Europe could alter the nature of the debate in the UK – and save both Britain and the EU from a mutually damaging divorce.