For most people politics is all about what happens somewhere else on TV after they change channel to watch football or a reality show instead. It is easy, even desirable, to go through life never meeting a senior politician for any length of time or seeing one in action.

I joined the UK Civil Service (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) back in 1979. FCO Ministers were lofty, important folk rarely seen by junior officials. Yet I stuck with it and worked my way up through the ranks to the point of being an Ambassador in three European countries. Which meant that I saw at close quarters all sorts of politicians: Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair, as well as successive Foreign Secretaries and many other Ministers. Plus, of course, numerous foreign leaders.

And I realised something about the way top politicians deal with each other.

There are the Three Levels of Discourse.

First, the bloke in the pub: occasionally (but usually not) well informed in general terms about a big policy issue, grumbling on about the mischief and duplicity of foreigners.

Then there is a vast cloud of bureaucracy. Clever, grey types poring over the complexity of issues, and judiciously weighing up facts and options. ‘On the one hand’ is carefully balanced with ‘on the other hand’, just as long-term is posited against short-term and medium-term. A world of targets, strategies, priorities, roadmaps, guidelines, competences, skills and all the other weary wasteful gobbledygook.

Finally, there is the leader who soars above these stuffy clouds, looking at the bright sky and wondering how to convince the blokes in pubs and the bureaucrats to follow his/her wise lead.

The key thing to understand is that when leaders meet each other, their discourse is much more like the blokes in pubs than like the bureaucrats.

Top meetings have almost nothing to do with clever detail and official nuance. The fluttering flunkeys write all that up afterwards. It is all about how leaders size each other up:

“Zut – Angela is facing an election next month, but looks confident. She did me a big favour on the Lisbon Treaty that time. I should back her this time…”

“Himmel! Nicolas is in a filthy temper – all those corruption scandals no doubt. He looks to be struggling, but at least he tends to deliver what he promises at times like this. I’ll stick with him on this one…”

“Gordon’s toast. The opinion polls are killing him. No need to listen to him any more. Let’s wait and see what the tricky Brits come up with after the election.”

“Boze, boze – Vladimir has that blank stare again today. I don’t fancy having a row with him about Ukraine. It gets so personal, and God knows what he’ll say to the press afterwards!”

All of which is simply to say that much of the current anguish at the very top of the European Union about the economic woes of the Eurozone is all about the mischief and duplicity of foreigners. In two words, Trust – and Pride.

The Germans feel that the Greeks and some others were sternly warned not to overdo it when they joined the Eurozone, but then ignored the rules and had one heck of a party. Can they be trusted to mend their ways now? It makes no sense to tell German workers to work well after 65 to pay for Greeks to retire at 62 – in the sun. Apart from the sheer stupidity of any such arrangement, German pride is at stake!

The Greeks feel that the Germans foolishly or naively were too trusting they encouraged some countries to overreach themselves for the sake of all that post-WW2 EU harmony. Now their precious Eurozone project is wobbling, so Berlin should pick up a good part of the tab. Of course the Greeks privately know that they have overdone it, but there’s no need for other smug European leaders to rub Greek noses in it. Greek pride is at stake!

Thus the stage is set. EU leaders gaze glumly at each other across a smart tablecloth complete with little plastic flags from each country and lots of cheap pens with cheery EU logos. The Eurozone leaders are gearing up for a battle of wills, and unfathomable repercussions for Europe and far beyond if they get it wrong. They are divided and gloomy among themselves, their irritation exacerbated by the rather too obvious smirking in the British corner.

They each are thinking about the press conference afterwards. And privately asking themselves hard but very human questions:

“How did we get ourselves into this mess?”

“How do I walk out from this meeting looking strong to my country’s voters?”

“If I offer concessions with my taxpayers’ money, whom can I trust to reciprocate – and then deliver?”

Whom indeed?

Charles Crawford, a former British Ambassador turned blogger and policy pundit, looks at how UK policies shape global events – and how global events shape UK policies. For more information or to contact Charles Crawford, click here.

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