For once, Juncker hits the nail on the head

THIS newspaper has never before held up that arch Eurocrat and former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker as a voice of sanity and reasonableness – but there is a first time for everything.

Mr Juncker was absolutely right to attack his successor Ursula von der Leyen’s attempts to start a vaccine war with Britain and in so doing disrupt the vital supply chains that most of the world is relying on.

He correctly noted, perhaps too late, that an export ban, and even the threat of one, will provide the EU with “major reputational damage”.

And on relations with Britain over the issue, he added: “We are not in war, and we are not enemies.We are allies.”

There are saner voices in European governments such as Sweden, Belgium and Holland who agree with this assessment.

But it seems that Ms von der Leyen’s own drive to try to blame Britain for her own catastrophic errors, added to the French and Italian governments’ desire to stir up anti-British hatred, are dictating the message.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has noted that we are in such a strong position with vaccines that these needlessly aggressive machinations will have little effect.

But the EU needs to decide, does it want to continue down this route of treating Britain as an enemy or want to be friends?

With the rest of the world rapidly signing up to trade deals with the UK, the EU’s importance is rapidly waning but it needs Britain to help with security and as a trade market.

More importantly, it will cement the view in international business that Britain, rather than the EU, is a stable place to invest.