The U.K. has suffered unnecessary damage due to Brexit but would always be welcome back in the EU, wrote European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
In a “love letter to Britain” published in the Guardian, Timmermans expressed his feeling of loss at Brexit. “I know you now. And I love you. For who you are and what you gave me. I’m like an old lover,” he wrote. But he added that he feared there would be more damage caused by the U.K.’s departure. “The sad thing is, I see it is hurting you … In the process so much unnecessary damage has been done to you, and all of us. And I fear more will follow.”
Timmermans said that Britain would always be welcome back as “family ties can never really be severed … We’re not going away and you will always be welcome to come back.”
The Commission VP reminisced about his time studying at a British school in Rome, more than 40 years ago. “I know you believe yourself to be unique and different,” he wrote. “And of course you are in many ways, but perhaps less than you think,” he continued.
All EU countries are unique, Timmermans added. These differences “make us the most creative, productive, peaceful and prosperous of families” at the best of times. At the worst of times, they “are manipulated to instil fear, to propagate superiority, to set one family member against the other.”.