We ask Michel Barnier: what is the future of Europe?

MICHEL BARNIER has been on the inside track of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. He was the EU’s iron-willed chief Brexit negotiator, who spent four long—and at times acrimonious—years thrashing out a deal with a rotating cast of British counterparts.

Nearly two years after Britain ended its membership of the EU after almost half a century, a shortage of migrant workers is causing severe disruption to fuel and food deliveries, unresolved trade issues are provoking tensions on the island of Ireland and, with a fishing war breaking out in the English Channel, the arguments over the impact of Brexit feel very much alive.