No European country is better understood in Brussels than Britain. Many European officials grew up adoring The Smiths or Manchester United, studied in the UK and now work mostly in English. So when Britain’s foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt compared the EU to the USSR, Brussels understood he was merely pandering to the Conservative party conference. That still didn’t satisfy Britain’s Polish and Baltic friends, who remembered the actual USSR. They had been trying to nudge Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, towards generosity over Brexit. Now they won’t bother any more.
在布鲁塞尔，没有哪个欧洲国家比英国更为人熟知。许多欧洲官员都是听着“史密斯乐团”(The Smiths)，看着曼联(Manchester United)长大的，他们曾在英国求学，现在工作也主要用英语。因此当英国外交大臣杰里米•亨特(Jeremy Hunt)将欧盟比作苏联时，布鲁塞尔方面明白他只是在迎合保守党(Conservative Party)大会。但这一解释不足以安抚英国的波兰以及波罗的海朋友们——他们记得真正的苏联是什么样的。此前他们试图劝说欧盟首席谈判代表米歇尔•巴尼耶(Michel Barnier)在英国退欧这件事上大方些。现在他们不再费心了。