To let Britain in would be, for the Six, to give in advance their consent to all the tricks, delays, and dissemblings which would start to undermine and destroy an edifice built out of so much pain and with so much hope. - Charles de Gaulle, November 1967
A VERY senior British EU diplomat was asked the other day if the ending of Britain's policy of non co operation, if it happens here in Florence, would represent "a permanent cessation", or could it be resumed if things went wrong again in the beef peace? And how can we be sure you can be trusted?
The poor man winced, laughed, and attempted to provide some reassurance. But the question was only half in jest. Many EU officials see the last few weeks as a critical watershed in the EU's stormy relationship with Britain. Florence will be a critical test of how severe is the damage.
No member has ever vetoed 70 measures before. Of course it's always been possible, because the Union rests, ultimately, on the individual consent of the member states - Greece has for months held up funding for the Mediterranean because of its dispute with Turkey.
And, although the rest disapprove strongly, most acknowledge that the issue and the target can be regarded as fair game. But with Britain it's a different matter. There is a question of trust, badly dented in the last few weeks and a sense that perhaps Britain has never accepted that in a club one needs the binding of what political scientists call "a consent to be governed".
Britain's partners are suddenly finding to their amazement that the issue of British withdrawal is back on the political agenda. Not that the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, favours such a course, but it is the tilting at European windmills engaged in by his government which has put it back on the agenda.
And, say his partners, Mr Major's little Englander attitudes help to keep it there. At Goldsmiths Hall in London on Wednesday he gave a long and deeply dubious explanation of how the beef crisis went to the heart of the EU as a free trade zone free trade in deadly meat?
But it was his attempt to argue that Britain's history and British instincts and attitudes set her people apart from Europe which was most bizarre. "Our politics are more black and white, more adversarial, more blood and thunder. So we are sometimes uneasy partners..." Tell that to the Germans.
This summit was supposed to be about jobs. The Commission's President, Mr Jacques Santer, on Wednesday, rather plaintively insisted that Florence should be "to employment what Madrid was to the single currency".
The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, even tried to tell a press conference, to guffaws from hacks, that beef is not on the agenda.
But this will be remembered as the beef summit, whether a deal on a framework is endorsed or not. And whether Mr Major lifts his obstructionism or not.
On balance, it is likely to end the stand off. A deal which promises a phased lifting of the beef ban, sets out the criteria for each stage and promises that decisions will be based purely on science (remember poor old Galileo), but gives no timetable or automaticity to the process, has just enough to keep both sides happy.
But few are under any illusions that the package represents a substantial climbdown by Mr Major.
Commission sources say the final package was hatched on Monday at the foreign ministers' conclave in Rome and that Mr Santer was able on Tuesday to tell his colleagues it would be a runner.
Leaders are likely to back Mr Santer's Confidence Pact for Jobs and to come up with an extra £800 million for TransEuropean Networks - only a quarter, however, of what he wanted, in part because of the costs of the BSE crisis.
Otherwise, the summit will mainly concentrate on reviewing work in hand and giving an impulse to the several projects that will culminate at the Dublin summit in December.
Leaders are now talking about Dublin being able to consider a preliminary draft new treaty - a formidable challenge for the Tanaiste's representative at the Inter Governmental Conference, Mr Noel Dorr.
Today, the leaders are likely to debate European security in the aftermath of Nato's recent Berlin decision to Europeanise some of its command structures in order to allow troops to be lent to the Western European Union.
The finance ministers will also review work on Economic and Monetary Union. The expectation is that Dublin will set the seal on the details of a new post EMU exchange rate mechanism and stability pact.
The Irish agenda is crowded, too. Progress on the fight against drugs will be enormously helped if Britain lifts its blockade of the Europol Convention. Another major report due for Dublin.
And the leaders will take note of reports on the European economy, sending out the signal that the slowdown in growth can only be temporary and that the fundamental strategy of budgetary restraint is still de rigueur. Another report for Dublin.