For as long as I can remember, I have been a Europhile – in love with Europe, and (almost) everything about it.

Normal teenagers have pictures of pop stars on their walls; I had a poster of the Channel Tunnel.

It seemed to me that a new country was being built alongside it, one with fewer borders, broader horizons and endless possibilities.

I did my bit for the “ever-closer union of peoples” by marrying a Swede, herself the daughter of Czech refugees – but we’re all Europeans Union.