Economic hardship and war have not pushed Europe’s nations apart, but closer together.

The course of Brexit was set in the hours and days after the 2016 referendum. / It was at 6:22 a.m. on June 24, 2016 — 59 minutes before the official tally was unveiled — that the European Council sent its first “lines to take” to the national governments that make up the EU.

The challenge posed by Britain leaving the EU gave the European Commission an opportunity to embed its values and its members’ interests.