The UK refusing to give full diplomatic status the EU's mission in London is baffling at at time when @BorisJohnson is trying to connect with @JoeBiden - because it recalls what Trump administration did to the EU ambassador back in 2019. Stay with

@BorisJohnson @JoeBiden The spat has been going for a while - we reported it in May, when the #Brexit trade talks were getting testy and - I assumed - it was the UK seeking a bit of leverage as the talks progressed. But we have a deal...and still no deal on the EU mission/2

https://t.co/O7bdVDAcvo
@BorisJohnson @JoeBiden Essentially the UK government wants to treat the @EUdelegationUK as a "international organisation based in London" - and not accord it full diplomatic status, as almost every other country in the world does, including the United States /3
@BorisJohnson @JoeBiden @EUdelegationUK Indeed when EU formed it's External Action Service (EEAS) the UK supported the idea that EU representatives should be full ambassadors - a fact reflected in the Treaty of Lisbon which we signed - and which reflected on fact EU had a currency, made laws etc. /4
@BorisJohnson @JoeBiden @EUdelegationUK It took some time for everyone to recognise this, but after @BarackObama came to power in 2016 even the USA did the same....then along came Donald Trump and in 2019 surreptitiously downgraded the status of the EU ambassador @D0Sullivan /4
@BorisJohnson @JoeBiden @EUdelegationUK @BarackObama @D0Sullivan Mr O'Sullivan only found when he attended George H W Bush's funeral and found he was listed not in proper order of precedence (according time served in DC) but at the back of the queue. /5
Genial fellow that he is, Mr O'Sullivan didn't kick up a stink, make a scene (some uppity ambos of my experience might have been less genial!) but when it got back to Member States/Brussels (which of course then included UK) there were furious /6
In the end, Trump quietly backed down but why on earth would @BorisJohnson - a PM trying to shake the "Britain Trump" moniker - pick this fight to score a few petty points at home? Baffling. /7
@BorisJohnson As @@D0Sullivan observed to me and my colleagues @jimbrunsden @Mikepeeljourno today, it really is a "surprising" approach to take - and one that gains the UK frankly nothing that I can see /8
@BorisJohnson @D0Sullivan @jimbrunsden @Mikepeeljourno The UK argument seems to be that the status they ARE prepared to accord @ValedeAlmeidaEU will still confer the same practical powers as full recognition....which of course, as always in matters of Protocol, misses the point /9
@BorisJohnson @D0Sullivan @jimbrunsden @Mikepeeljourno @ValedeAlmeidaEU As @Tobias_Ellwood - Tory MP& Chair defence select cmme - points out, this is "petty", but worse than that, surely is that it's clumsy and incompetence and surely isn't going to help @DominicRaab
forge links with Bidenworld /10

https://t.co/djhBVICEQ1
@BorisJohnson @D0Sullivan @jimbrunsden @Mikepeeljourno @ValedeAlmeidaEU @Tobias_Ellwood @DominicRaab I frankly couldn't give a monkeys about anyone dignity or the flummeries of diplomatic protocol - it's the clumsiness that kills you. /11
@BorisJohnson @D0Sullivan @jimbrunsden @Mikepeeljourno @ValedeAlmeidaEU @Tobias_Ellwood @DominicRaab This should have quietly gone away in January.

Now the govt risks damage in both Brussels, EU capitals & DC...just when we're trying to strike the 'global Britain' pose and learn how to play piggy in the middle with those two regulatory behemoths.

Way to go. END

More from Peter Foster

Another head-banging day for the £112bn UK creative sector that is starting to ingest how difficult #Brexit is going to make their lives - and how little the government is really willing to do to fix the lack of a 'mobility' chapter in the EU-UK trade deal. Quick update.../1

First Equity @EquityUK put out a letter to @BorisJohnson warning that #brexit was a "towering hurdle" (you'd want Brian Blessed reading that part) to UK actors plying their trade in EU - a double whammy with #COVID19 /2

https://t.co/mXjTAISqZk


@BorisJohnson One third of Equity members say they've seen job ads asking for EU passport holders: "Before, we were able to travel to Europe visa-free. Now we have to pay hundreds of pounds, fill in form after form, and spend weeks waiting for approval" /3

@BorisJohnson Worth recalling that all this goes back to the UK desire NOT to have a 'mobility' provision within the TCA - all part of 'ending Free Movement' and the professional services folk - including musicians, actors, fashion models etc -are all victim of

@BorisJohnson What's the government going to do about all this? Good question, which brings us to todays @CommonsDCMS hearing in which the Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage @cj_dinenage frankly pin-balled around the issues /5

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