George Berthoin, spelled out in an interview with the BBC that the intention has always been “a United States of Europe.”

He should know, he was there at the beginning. For the 90 year old civil servant that lived through the war, grew in the aftermath of the previous one, and knew what the division of Europe was about, the issue at hand was not controversial.

Georges Berthoin was handpicked by Jean Monnet in 1955 to to become his Head of Private Office. And he is now the last surviving me...