There is no "punishment" being handed out here.
Wow, just wow. Are you really so short-sighted, so blinkered, so naive as to not realise this is the EU sending a very strong message to the likes of Italy and any other country that thinks they can sway matters with talk of doing their own little side-stage exit if they don't get their own way?
It was always going to be this way. If Brexit resulted in a sweet deal for the UK then other countries would have a viable fall-back option should they not want to play ball, which would result in a clear lack of cohesion within the block. You simply have to make leaving the block appear unpalatable, anything else is suicidal.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
