The importance of the Treaty of Rome lay in the fact that even at the moment of signature Germany and France did not agree. Germany wanted the common market, while France was more enthusiastic about the new atomic energy agency, Euratom. Bonn was keen to abolish tariffs on manufactured products; Paris was determined to protect the incomes of its farmers. The future strength of the European enterprise rested on a shared willingness to put aside such differences in the cause of compromise.

There is a mythology, particularly prevalent in Britain, that says that the EU has always reflected a close identity of interests and outlook between the continent’s two largest nations. This explains the success of what has been called the Franco-German locomotive.

The reverse is true. The Germans and the French have argued from the outset about the shape of Europe. In Paris, integration has been about building a firebreak against an overmighty US. For an Atlanticist Germany, Europe has been a route back to national reunification and the way to banish the demons of recent history.