As Norway's integration with the EU intensified, he suggests that media, public and political understanding shrank.

BBC: Non-EU Norway 'almost as integrated in union as UK'

Britain and other member states objected to Mr Verhofstadt's federalist vision of EU integration.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Politics | Patten quits EU presidential race

The obstacle to Ukraine's integration with the EU lies not in its rapprochement with Russia but in its domestic politics, its weak institutions and the dire state of the economy.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine's new government: One hundred days of Yanukovich | The