EU leaders together for start of First World War centenary

The leaders of the 28 EU countries took a few hours off bickering over who should lead the European Commission to remember the day, 100 years ago, when the First World War began, taking 16m lives in just four years.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, those who were once friend and foe, ally and enemy in the town of Ypres that was raised from the ashes to make its tourism livelihood from the graveyards of Flanders fields.

They walked to the Menin gate — a long archway covered in the names of the war dead who were never found — most tense and silent in the afternoon sun.