Germany’s former European commissioner has lashed out at Brussels for pushing Britain into an impossible position on Brexit, while three of the country’s top economic think tanks have called for a radical change in the EU’s negotiating strategy.

“Brussels has taught us a lesson in how not to deal with a member state that wants to leave. The problem is not on the British side. The problem is on the EU side,” said Günter Verheugen, Germany’s veteran ex-commissioner.

He told ARD’s Anne Will show in Berlin that the EU’s negotiating team had made a strategic misjudgement, missed the larger issues at stake and should not try to dictate terms fundamentally unacceptable to London: “We’re not losing a member state, we’re losing the weight of 20 member states. We therefore have an interest that we remain the closest possible allies.”