Theresa May has shrugged off threats from Europe to enforce a “painful” Brexit on the UK, arguing on Tuesday that the EU will have to “sign up to a deal” with Britain.

As both sides stake out their negotiating positions ahead of next year’s EU-UK divorce talks, here we look at why European countries might seek to drive a hard bargain, even at a cost to their own economies… but also why common sense may yet prevail.

Europe’s instinct for self-preservation

Hardball: The UK’s Brexit vote has caused Europe to roll itself up, like a threatened hedgehog, in a prickly defensive ball that is determined to defend the Union. The EU is creaking financially, split over migration and threatened by the fractious forces of populist politics.

Fear that the EU is coming apart at the seams is therefore one major factor driving calls for a punitive Brexit to stop the rest of the project unravelling.

This was best summed up in the recent open letter from Donald Tusk, the European Council president, to the remaining 27 European member states urging them to force a Brexit deal on Britain that left “no room for doubt” that it was worth staying a member of the EU club.