Big countries nearly always get EU’s prized single market job

“Generally, what you see is that larger member states with more power more consistently get the files they care about,” said Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

That’s the result of France and Germany’s power in the EU, as well as a “long tradition, an intellectual history really, of French thinking about industry and building a single market,” argued Tordoir. The EU's largest economy, Germany, has been more focused on trade with the rest of the world, he added.

“The perception is sometimes that this French focus [on internal market] … is really just a cloaked way of building its own French industrial champions,” said Tordoir — although he added that’s not “entirely fair,” and that industry-minded France could play a key role in boosting the EU’s competitiveness.