“In the short term, relief. In the longer run, concern”, is how a senior EU diplomat sums up the overall feeling in European capitals at the prospect of Brexit.

After two and a half years of exacting negotiations, few European leaders seem to believe the Brussels party line they keep repeating: that they would much prefer the UK to remain in the European Union. On the contrary, the feeling in more than a few capitals is that it is indeed in the UK’s interest to stay in the EU, but in the EU’s interest to keep it out. Few are ready to contemplate years of renewed acrimonious cohabitation with a member state harbouring such obviously mixed feelings toward the European idea.