okay then!
germany wanted to UK to play nice, because merkel doesn’t want to be left just dealing with France, the problematic southern europeans and the liberal others (think sweden/denmark/poland)
germany sought after a full treaty change that took time and had all 27 up for it, france doesn’t – and was quite happy to go with the dirty, quick and easy route to change the treaty and strengthen the core 16 nations the most and marginalise a big european player i.e. the UK
my gripe is that is wasn’t done properly, with an negotiated solution for all 27 – it was dirty and quick with a threat to the small players like poland to sign up or you too will be out of the club
and the EU wonders why the UK is so hesitant about europe…