Читать книгу My Secret Brexit Diary - Michel Barnier - Страница 36

Sabine Weyand, Stefaan De Rynck and I have just met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s sherpa at the Chigi Palace. It’s late, but many are still out on the sumptuous streets of Rome around the Farnese Palace.

I got to know Stefaan De Rynck in 1999 when he became my spokesman at the Commission for Institutional Reform. I have always found it reassuring to turn to the wise and subtle analyses of this Flemish Belgian. He is now in charge of communication and relations with think-tanks in my team, and closely follows the public debate in the UK.

A few days ago, the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson got involved in a nasty dispute with the Italian Minister for Economic Development Carlo Calenda, and ended up threatening to stop buying Prosecco.

And so we decide to have a glass of Prosecco on the terrace; the moment is immortalized in Stefaan’s tweet, which will be reported throughout the British press… Protectionism is not the right attitude, nor the right message to be sending!