The EU’s recovery fund is a benefit of Brexit

CONSIDER A COUNTERFACTUAL. A few years after the referendum in which Britain narrowly voted to stay in the EU, David Cameron hands power to a loyal chancellor, George Osborne. Upon taking office, Mr Osborne faces a global pandemic and Britain’s deepest recession since 1706. To cap it all, an unwelcome proposal from Brussels arrives: a €750bn ($825bn) recovery fund earmarked for the struggling economies of southern Europe, paid for with debt issued by the bloc. Britain is on the hook for about €90bn. “I did warn you, George,” writes Boris Johnson, now editor of the Evening Standard, London’s local newspaper, in a gleeful column.

Had history taken that route, Britain would have vetoed the scheme that EU officials hope will dig the bloc out of its economic hole, points out Sir Ivan Rogers, the country’s former ambassador to the EU. Reality turned out differently. Britain voted to leave, Mr Johnson became prime minister and Mr Osborne edits a local newspaper in London. And, for the first time, the EU is taking a path that would have been blocked by its former member.