UK set to formally recognise the EU’s ambassador in bid to cool tensions
The UK is set to grant full diplomatic status to the EU’s ambassador to the UK in a move that could cool tensions and put to bed a long-running dispute.
João Vale de Almeida, a near lifetime Eurocrat, took up the ambassadorial post last year, but had not been formally recognised by Boris Johnson’s government.
The UK’s decision to not grant diplomatic status to Almeida riled EU officials, with Brussels in turn freezing out Britain’s ambassador Lindsay Croisdale-Appleby from official communications.
Foreign Office sources told The Times that the row had created an “unhealthy, chilling effect” between officials and that the UK was set to back down on its previous stance.
“It is a silly dispute but has had a corrosive effect,” they said.
Former Conservative foreign secretary William Hague wrote in The Times last month that it would “costs us nothing” to grant diplomatic status to Almeida.
“This would allow our own ambassador to the EU to be admitted to high-level meetings in Brussels,” he said.
It comes as the European Parliament on Tuesday night officially ratified the UK-EU trade deal.
MEPs overwhelmingly approved the deal, with 660 votes to five and 32 abstentions.
The deal was provisionally ratified by the 27 EU ambassadors in December to ensure it came into law by the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December, however MEPs wanted more time to scrutinise the 1,600-page deal.
MEPs branded Brexit a “historic mistake” in a resolution attached to the Brexit trade deal.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to confirm reports that Almeida would be formally recognised as an ambassador.
“Negotiations on this issue are ongoing, so we’re not going to pre-empt that,” he said.
“It’s important to say that regardless of the agreement reached, the EU and delegation staff will be granted the privileges and immunities necessary to carry out their work effectively.”