Eating for Europe

Dinner at the EU, not a simple affair.

Some years ago when I was still working in the City I accompanied one of our US analysts on a visit to a French manufacturing company in Grenoble.  He was a lovely person and very highly regarded in his field.  Not unusually for an American he had to obtain a passport to come to Europe for the trip, having only previously travelled out of the U.S. many years before.

On arrival at the plant we immediately embarked on a long lunch.  After several hours he passed a note to me. The note read:-

‘When does the meeting begin?’

I sent a note back;

‘This is the meeting!’

I was reminded of this experience last Friday when reading the live tweets and blogs coming out of Brussels as David Cameron clawed his way towards his ‘agreement’ with other EU leaders. It really does seem that nothing can happen in Continental Europe unless accompanied by a lot of eating! In fact it is rare for EU leaders to meet in circumstances that do not include lavish gastronomy.

In the course of Friday we were treated to comments about a postponed ‘English Breakfast’, which turned into an ‘English Lunch’ and then an ‘English Tea’.   As the tension rose and agreement proved elusive the 'Dinner hour' was postponed several times.  There was a suspicion that Leaders were being deliberately kept from their fodder. David Grossman commented;   ‘Tusk is keeping EU Leaders bored and hungry until they agree’.

But at last it seemed that there was light at the end of the tunnel for the famished group. Isabel Hardman from the Spectator tweeted ‘Excited huddle taking place.  We may actually get news shortly, and not just about food!’

The next day, as an exhausted and, presumably, well fed Cameron called his Cabinet Meeting,  foodie metaphors were everywhere in the press.  Some of these reflected some scepticism about the true nourishment inherent in the deal.  The Leader in the Telegraph was headed ‘Thin Gruel’, and the elsewhere we read that ‘From the land of chocolate David Cameron was always destined to bring back fudge’.