UK-EU bustup: the price for CEE

Tomas Valasek of the Centre for European Reform has written an excellent and gloomy analysis of the wider damage caused by David Cameron's botched negotiations. One point is that Britain's likely absence from European economic decision-making will tilt the balance towards French etatism. Another is that small countries will be eezed by big ones when decisions are made on an intergovernmental basis, rather than through EU institutions. Many from the EU-10 think that they are not welcome (at least from a French point of view) in the real core of Europe. Mr Valášek quotes a participant at a recent think-in who says:
"The more excluded we are, the more difficult we find it to pursue sensible policies, and this in turn gives France more reasons to kick us out altogether." He concludes:  "Britain has become toxic by association...ideas which it sponsors will be resisted on principle, not on merit. And for governments that share London's liberal view on the economy, that is a depressing conclusion.