‘Be a good chap, Charlie, come back — we’ll give the limo a make-over, all right?’ In July 1965, German cartoonist Hanns Erich Köhler comments on the French Government’s decision to boycott intergovernmental meetings of Community bodies in Brussels, thereby provoking the ‘empty chair’ crisis. As French President Charles de Gaulle leaves the ‘EEC car’, German Chancellor Erhard looks on in irritation.