Juncker’s leak wasn’t about us – it was part of an internal EU battle Whether you’re a Brexit enthusiast, or one of its hardbitten opponents, it’s possible to get so wrapped up in the […]

Whether you’re a Brexit enthusiast, or one of its hardbitten opponents, it’s possible to get so wrapped up in the issue that you assume everything that happens must be all about the UK.

When someone close to Jean-Claude Juncker leaked a doom-laden account of his recent dinner with Theresa May, the British press was quick to leap on it to dissect every possible message the President of the EU Commission might have for us. Or, rather, they were quick to leap on it once it had been translated from German – we still don’t study enough languages at school in this country.

The very fact it was leaked to the German press should prick our self-obsession at least a little. Maybe – just maybe – Juncker’s primary audience in this leaking and briefing isn’t the British electorate.

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Juncker and the Commission versus the Member States

We tend to forget that Juncker himself isn’t in an entirely secure position. While we talk of what “the EU” thinks about the forthcoming negotiations, in reality there are several different, competing, camps, all of whom want themselves – and their preferred priorities – to shape Brussels’ response to Brexit.

“There are only two reasons why a British MP might our negotiating strategy to be completely transparent. Either they don’t understand how negotiations work, or they want the negotiations to fail“

Juncker and the Commission are ideologues, charged by the EU treaties to pursue “ever closer union”. It is in their interests to want to punish Britain for daring to leave, pour encourager les autres. With no electorate to answer to they are less likely to consider the economic damage that punitive trade barriers would do to the remainder of the EU’s export industries.

By contrast, the Member States have a more pragmatic worldview. They don’t like Brexit – not least as it removes British taxpayers’ money from the EU funding pot – but they don’t relish the prospect of putting their own voters out of work in order to satisfy the Eurocrats’ taste for revenge.

The leak painted London as outrageously demanding

The dogmatists in Brussels started off in charge of the EU position. After all, it’s their full time job. But, as time goes by and practicalities are considered, they find themselves at risk of being reined in by more pragmatic voices in the national capitals, who have taken longer to organise themselves – not least because they have other things to occupy their time.

It’s no great surprise, then, that Juncker, dogmatist in chief, is now leaking stories that paint himself as simply a reasonable guy, trying to be practical in the face of outrageous demands from London. He appears to be trying to reassure a German audience that he isn’t putting the ideology of Eurofederalism ahead of the real life interests of the EU’s residents – even though this has always been the EU project’s nature, as the unemployed 23.5 per cent of Greeks can attest.

But still, in our self-absorption, we assume that really he was trying to talk to us. This makes little sense, given that the sight of the EU’s most senior official negatively briefing against the Prime Minister is only likely to harden British public opinion that Brussels cannot be trusted. But some – particularly the Liberal Democrats – appear to be convinced that the EU is a united party that always tells the truth, and acts in our interests, not its own.

At every stage of the Brexit process so far, Farron and Clegg have reliably called it wrong. So convinced are they that Brexit is an inherently bad idea, that they appear not to be able to engage with its practical realities. The fact they lost the referendum drives them to illogical extremes – one Liberal Democrat peer recently compared the concept of the referendum to the tactics of Stalin and Hitler, mere days after he voted to hold a second one.

Naive

They’re repeating this odd behaviour in their response to the negotiation itself. Instantly taking everything that you hear from the other side of the table as gospel suggests utter naivety about both the nature of the EU and the practice of negotiations.

Demanding the British Government publish every word of its negotiating strategy in advance only reinforces that impression. No business would publish all of its plans ahead of a contract negotiation, then instantly accept the first set of demands put forward by those it is negotiating with.

There are only two reasons why a British MP might want May and Davis to make their negotiating strategy completely transparent before talks begin. Either they don’t understand how negotiations work, or they actively want the negotiations to fail. Whichever the Liberal Democrats are guilty of, they have made it clear they are the last people to trust with the future of the nation.

Mark Wallace is Executive Editor of ConservativeHome.com