In 1980, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher exclaimed to the EEC (the forerunner of the EU), “I want my money back.” She thought Britain was paying too much and threatened to withhold membership payments or even leave the trading bloc altogether.

A BBC camera crew, crouched low behind a hedge in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles while they changed a film magazine out of the direct glare of the sun, managed to record a private conversation between President Francois Mitterrand of France and Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Mitterrand asked Kohl whether they should concede the rebate, and Kohl replied that he thought Thatcher was unpredictable and mad enough to leave the EEC if they didn’t pay up, so they had better agree.