LONDON, January 21, 2021, (TON): On Thursday, European Union Ambassador, Joao Vale de Almeida is denied of full diplomatic status by the Great Britain thus causing a spat between the parties. 

Britain had been an EU member for 46 years, voted to quit in 2016 and Brexit fully took action and completed the tortuous journey on December 31, 2020.

The media reported that the Foreign Office refused to grant the same diplomatic status and privileges to EU ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida and his team as it gives to envoys of countries, on the basis that the EU is not a nation state.

An immediate comment on the action did not come up by the Foreign Office.

The EU has 143 delegations, equivalent to diplomatic missions, around the world. All of them have been granted full diplomatic status by the host countries.

A letter sent to the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab by Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, was quoted by the media in which he said,  London’s proposals on the issue did not constitute a reasonable basis for agreement.

Borrell wrote that the arrangements offered do not reflect the specific character of the EU, nor do they respond to the future relationship between the EU and the UK as an important non-member.

The report quoted the Foreign Office in London as saying, “engagement continues with the EU on the long-term arrangements for the EU delegation to the UK.”

The EU sources had accused Britain of pettiness and hypocrisy, that when it was still a member, it had signed up to granting EU envoys full diplomatic status.