 Journal of Fine Newspaper. Another Fine Newspaper is of course the New York Times and that's why I'm delighted to have with us the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe of the New York Times. I'm sure all of you are familiar with his work, with his writing. He was based amongst others in Berlin, Paris, Moscow, London, and now currently in Brussels. Great to have him with us. Please welcome Steven Erlanga, ladies and gentlemen. Now, Steve, nobody needs to tell you about Europe. This is a continent that you've been covering for a very, very long time. That's why I'm particularly curious to hear your take on the future of the EU. Thank you, Ali, and we've been all waiting for Europe to grow up for a very long time. I think I'll be dead before it reaches teenage years, but we'll see. It's always hard to follow Rick, but I want to encourage you, in one thing, if you are troubled by Donald Trump's indifference to Europe, think how troubled you would be if he was really interested in Europe. I think he's basically decided, not liking multilateral institutions, that the European Union and his view is silly, but if you want it, it's okay. And that's kind of the way he feels about NATO. Maybe it's not great, and maybe the US is being taken advantage of, but it seems important and the people around him think it's important, so it's okay. I'm very ambivalent. I would guess right now about the state of the European Union. I think it has gotten some of its mojo back. There's no question. Brexit has been a prize de conscience. It has made sure that no other country will vote to leave the EU, at least not for quite a long time. It has reinvigorated the idea that Europe needs better leadership. The growth is back. Europe is still very slow. As we've heard in the economic and finance panels, unemployment is less, but still bad, particularly for youth. The big problem remains the diversity of 28 countries. What worked at 15 does not really work so well at 28, perhaps soon to be 27. I suspect soon to be 27. But Britain was never really the problem inside the EU. It was an irresistible, but not a problem. What we have is, and my friend Ivan Krustia has written a little essay that got turned into a book called After Europe. His worry is not North-South. It's East-West. It is the conflict in values between eastern members, central members. The one we say central, that always implies that Russia is part of Europe and I'm not sure that it really wants to be or is. These countries which are pretty newly sovereign are still very reluctant to give up that newly-found, re-found sovereignty to Brussels. They really oppose the idea of a stronger European institutional basis. So there's a big debate going on if we need more Europe for the eurozone. It's not clear to me that the argument is won in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, or Slovakia. Not at all clear. They don't like the euro. They don't like Brussels. Now, to some degree, they're very pro-European. They get aid and their citizens can work and travel. But some of these countries like Slovakia, which is a fascinating place, it's five or six million people. It makes more cars per capita than any country honors. And they're all because of EU companies. It's very pro-European, yet it resists taking any migrants and resists this notion that a membership of the EU and costs with it not simply benefits. Now, that's a valuation, but it's also going to take quite a long time to resolve. The other thing we talk about is the Franco-German couple. It's no longer enough for Europe to sign. The Germans are desperate to have a France that is in better shape, partly to share the responsibility and the blame of European leadership because there's a lot of that in German feeling in Southern Europe and in Eastern Europe, feeling that if you think Trump is America first, Germany has been acting as Germany first in Europe for quite a long time, even though its myth is, you know, altruism. But no one in the European Union actually believes in that myth anymore. And America understands that. That's part of the problem. And you see it in defense, which I won't go into much because others will, but already in new ideas of European defense, you have a big fight between Germany and France because Germany wants a big club and France wants capabilities, not surprising. And France wants more money spent on equipment and training and the Germans just want a club. And if you look at German opinion polls, we want Germany to do more. We want Germany to play a bigger role. Germans themselves are extremely ambivalent about doing that. Now, the last point I'll make, and this one really is the last, it's not the penultimate and the third, is Brexit. I've just moved from Britain. I've spent nine years of my life there. Britain has become a country I don't even recognize anymore. And its allies don't recognize it anymore. I've just done a piece that you carry in today's Sunday New York Times about Britain and Brexit, and I'm just going to end by reading you the first two paragraphs, which are many Britons see their country as a brave gallium, banners waving, cannons firing, trumpets blaring. This is how the voluble foreign secretary Boris Johnson likes to describe it. But Britain is now a modest sized ship on the global ocean. Having voted to leave the European Union, it is unmoored, heading to nowhere, while on deck fire has broken out and the captain, Port Theresa May, is lashed to the mast without the authority to decide whether to turn to port or to starboard, let alone do what one imagines she would want to do and knows would be best, which is to turn around and head back to shore. People don't recognize this Britain. We think of Britain as a country of pragmatism, of common sense, political stability, a nation of shopkeepers. It's become nearly unrecognizable. It's no longer the country they understood it to be their whole lives. But I do think the EU and Britain, I really hope some kind of deal will be done because Britain, the trade, is useful for Britain and the EU. Britain is a military power still, the very hollowed out, let's be honest. And to imagine an EU or Britain without some kind of decent relationship shakes me to the core. Thank you.