London (ANP) – The UK is refusing to grant the EU ambassador in London the same full diplomatic status as country ambassadors. This decision is bad in Brussels, according to the BBC on Thursday. The president of the European Union, Joseph Borrell, is said to have raised the issue with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last year.
The United Kingdom left the European Union last year and now would like to treat EU envoys as representatives of an international organization. They have a different status than country ambassadors. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations states that they enjoy a variety of privileges and immunities.
The UK Foreign Office would like to prevent envoys from other organizations from invoking a situation like this. The European Union might consider this nonsense, as it would not be an international organization in the traditional sense. The BBC wrote that it also feared other countries would follow Britain’s example.
The issue is expected to be taken up next Monday when the European Union foreign ministers meet.
