50 Europe The Economist November 6th 2021
Noisyneighbours
T
he britishgovernment is easily distracted. At the g7, it was
sausages that knocked its concentration. Leaders gathered in
Carbis Bay in June to discuss the pandemic and climate change.
Instead they found Boris Johnson, their British host, embroiled in
an argument with the euabout the export of chilled meats to
Northern Ireland. At cop26, the environmental jamboree in Glas
gow in Scotland, it was fish. Mr Johnson argued with France over
the fate of a few dozen fishing licences in the Channel Islands.
Britain’s relationship with the euhas a habit of interfering
with setpiece events. France threatened to ban British boats from
its ports, as well as jam up freight heading to and from Britain with
extra checks. In turn Britain threatened to sue France for breach
ing the terms of a trade deal between the euand Britain, agreed on
with a mixture of stress and haste at the end of 2020. Two nato al
lies, nuclear powers and partners on the unSecurity Council with
a combined gdplarger than Japan’s, issued threats over a fishing
industry worth only about 0.1% of it—though they managed to
park the issue for a few days while the bigwigs were in town.
Fishing illustrates the Richard Scarry rule: politicians are terri
fied to mess with workers whose jobs are often depicted in chil
dren’s books, since voters have a romantic view of farmers, fire
fighters, cops, etc. So fights between national fishing fleets can
swiftly escalate, until prime ministers and presidents are slapping
each other with figurative flounders. The eukeeps such squabbles
in check between its members, but Britain has left the club. Dull
meetings of a fisheries council have been replaced by a British
minister dashing across the Channel for talks to avert a trade war.
FrancoBritish ties have often frayed. When all went well, it led
to good things such as jointly developing Concorde, the world’s
first supersonic passenger jet. When things went poorly, it led to
bad stuff, like the operational performance of Concorde, which
lost lots of money and then fizzled out. When both countries were
in the eu, it took larger disputes, such as Iraq, to strain the rela
tionship. Now, even scallops can blow things off course.
Take away bodies like the eu, which tie governments together
in ceaseless dialogue, and friction is inevitable. Neighbours row,
no matter how welltempered they usually are. Across the Atlan
tic, local hegemon America frequently squares up against Canada,themostplacid neighbour imaginable, over everything from tim
ber to milk. Japan and South Korea are both rich democracies fear
ful of authoritarian neighbours and allied to America, but they do
not let that get in the way of a reliably spiky relationship.
Although the euis skilled at soothing things between its mem
bers, that can make things more complex for its neighbours. Otta
wa can speak to Washington directly, without having to worry
much about bilateral relations between Canada and Montana.
When Britain tries to deal with its euneighbours, it now faces an
overlapping matrix of legal and political authority, between the eu
and national governments. At times, the British government still
clings to the false hope that convincing a few big countries is
enough to sway the eu. The opposite is the case: those that are
most affected by an issue hold the pen on controversial files,
whether they are large or small. Other governments back them,
building up favours that can be repaid. The euis complicated.
Dealing with it is complicated, too.
Britain is hardly alone in enduring a rocky relationship with
the eu. So do most of the club’s neighbours and allies. Turkey, os
tensibly an ally but more usually an annoyance, is a constant
thorn. The club often clashes with America, another economic
power used to having its way. Switzerland’s relationship (the most
similar to Britain’s) is often barbed. For an example of somewhere
that usually has a calm relationship with the eu, the best options
are Norway or Liechtenstein, which is less a country than the an
swer to a pubquiz question. Britain is too large to accept being
pushed around but too small to force its way.
Perpetual arguments beckon, says Samuel Lowe of the Centre
for European Reform, a thinktank. When the row over fish passes,
attention will turn to Northern Ireland, a more serious problem.
The British government wants to overhaul the Northern Ireland
protocol, which oversees trade involving the province. Depending
on how it does it, this could trigger an allout trade war between
Britain and the eu, or, at best, months of negotiations. When that
issue passes, others will flare up, whether on data protection, fi
nancial regulation or British exporters facing a carbon bordertax.
The threat is not the rows themselves, but the opportunity
costs of dealing with them. Britain and France will remain strong
military allies. In the midst of the row, a French sub popped up in
Faslane, which is home to Britain’s nuclear subs. The Lancaster
House treaties, in which the two countries tied their armed forces
together, still stand. Such agreements do not collapse overnight.
But they can wither if there is little political desire to keep them
watered. Amid the noise, the longerterm damage being done can
be silent. Don’t worry about the bang; fear the whimper. We need to talk
After Brexit, officials in Britain and the eucome together almost
only in crisis or confrontation. Rather than regular meetings
aimed at solving problems before they appear, diplomats talk
when things have already gone wrong. Politicians will always
scrap, whether inside or outside the eu. But there are now fewer
forums for diplomats to heal the wounds. Even America and the
Soviet Union had a red phone. European history is one of grumpy
relations between neighbours. The eudid not exist, so they had to
invent it. Over 60 years, an apparatus emerged to stop small tech
nical arguments becoming big political headaches. Brexit means
having to reinvent a space for arcane policy discussionbetween
Britain and its European neighbours. Until it does,publicfights
over scallops or sausages will be too tempting to resist.nCharlemagne
Rows between Britain and the eu are inevitable, but need not be harmful