EU unity faces fresh test in Northern Ireland Brexit row

“The root of the problem, in a way, is the very bad state of the British-French relationship,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “It is so bad that it makes the French quite unwilling to help the British at all on Brexit issues. And the French of course are very influential on the EU institutions.” Grant argued that if the UK “started to get serious about diplomacy” and tried to “behave better and make some friends in Europe, then there would be a threat to unity because not everybody would want to follow the hard line that the French are taking.”