The continent’s deep political divisions were laid bare in spectacular fashion within minutes of EU leaders breaking up from a day of talks that had been designed to confront the existential crisis facing the EU with a new spirit of loyal cooperation and communication.
But attempts to choreograph a picture of unity against the backdrop of Bratislava’s chocolate-box castle descended into a full-blown European farce.
All talks of unity evaporated when Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, refused to stage a press conference with his German and French counterparts because of the failure to do more to help the continent’s ailing southern economies.
The failed attempt to put up a united front comes after a bruising few weeks for Europe also in September, in which the Luxembourg foreign minister called for Hungary to be ejected from the EU.
The decision to try and enforce a truce had been a key part of a six-month plan called the Bratislava road map which was to culminate with a vision for a post-Brexit EU to be launched in March 2017 on the 60th anniversary of the EU’s founding Treaty of Rome.
In fact, German chancellor Angela Merkel, whose open-door refugee policy is widely blamed for the crisis of confidence among European publics, said that the EU was in a critical situation and that it was vital that the leaders agree to a plan of action.