The lucky Fransh who get into ENA ( Ecole Nationale d'administration ) are called enarques and are the current 'Heaven born' in the French civil service
The French absurd pensions policy has allowed retirees to have a pension equivalent to their last salary and then index-linked, a situation which is financially unsustainable, and partly why they are a basket case, so their brilliant ambition is to have all EU pensions linked into the same pot, so we can all contribute to keep them in comfortable retirement. Little wonder she doesn't want a Brexit. Merde Alors!
I disagree that the EU needs the UK - it would prefer a large pan-European project to proceed with general agreement of all members, but if someone refuses to co-operate then that simply means that nation will not be involved. Does the UK need the EU - probably not but my suspicion is that it would become evident that it would be better off in the EU but for that to be possible the UK would have to accept that the EU is not a new British Empire and the UK is simply one of many members who need to cooperate rather than unilaterally demand/dictate conditions. This is one of the reasons I support a UK exit (to see what happens).