Brexit row over EU diplomatic status pushes UK further into isolation

Analysis: Issue viewed as another example of UK government’s pettiness over Europe underneath all the talk of ‘Global Britain’, explains Kim Sengupta

In 143 nations around the world, the European Union’s diplomatic missions are given the same rights as those of sovereign states (PA)

In 143 nations around the world, from Afghanistan to Zambia, the European Union’s diplomatic missions are given the same rights as those of sovereign states.  

This is the case even in countries on which the European Union has imposed sanctions, including Russia, Syria and Venezuela; as well as other states where the missions have held governments to account over human rights abuse. And they have sovereign status in countries with the world’s largest economies including the US, Japan, China and India.

The exception is Boris Johnson’s government, which is insisting that the EU mission here, set up after Brexit, should have the same status as multinational bodies, such as, for example, the International Maritime Organisation.  

This is despite the fact that the UK was a signatory to the Treaty of Lisbon in 2010 which set up the diplomatic missions stating that they should be granted the “privileges and immunities equivalent to those referred to in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961”.

The EU mission was set up in London in January last year, and, 12 months on, it is still waiting for the British government to abide by the agreement it signed up to a decade ago and give its chief, Joao Vale de Almeida, who had served previously as EU ambassador to the UN and EU ambassador to the US the full diplomatic status that is granted to other ambassadors.

The impasse, the news of which first surfaced eight months ago, comes as Britain is due to announce the next ambassador to the European Union, with Lindsay Appleby, currently director-general, EU Exit, at the Foreign Office, tipped for the post.  A consequence of the UK’s stance is that under the rules of diplomatic reciprocity the EU may refuse the UK mission diplomatic status.

The EU delegation in London is based in Europa House, the former headquarters of the Conservative Party in Smith Square. Eurosceptic MPs, including the Conservative leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees Mogg, have suggested that Brussels hand back the politically iconic building after the UK voted for Brexit.

British diplomats have often worked closely with their EU counterparts abroad and have given each other mutual support in difficult circumstances. One of the latest examples was in Belarus three months ago when two British diplomats were expelled. The EU embassy in Minsk was among the foremost to protest at the move with Alexander Lukashenko’s government.

The EU’s predecessor, the European Coal and Steel (ECSC) Community, opened its first mission in London in 1953 and, after three years, non-EU countries began to accredit their missions in Brussels to the Community. The US administration of President Harry Truman was among the first to give the ECSC diplomatic recognition by sending an ambassador.

Donald Trump downgraded the status of the EU mission in Washington during his ongoing trade feud with the EU but reversed the decision a year later after strong lobbying from US officials.

The Foreign Office maintains that the UK position is nothing to do with breaking links with the EU, insisting that giving the EU mission diplomatic status would lead to other international organisations seeking the same status.  

This is not an issue which troubles 142 other countries around the globe and is being viewed by diplomats, not just from the EU, as another example of a seam of pettiness over Europe by this government underneath all the talk of ‘Global Britain’ forging international links.  

It is ironic that this issue has risen again as President Joe Biden starts his administration with the stated aim of strengthening relations with the European Union damaged by Donald Trump.