The United Kingdom has been outside the European Union for only 21 days, and the first diplomatic confrontation between the two has already emerged. London refuses to guarantee the full diplomatic status of the EU ambassador to the United Kingdom, João Val de Almelo, who has sparked protests from High Representative Josep Borrell.
London’s thesis is that the European Union is not a nation-state, and therefore it only has the diplomatic status of an international organization, which means that its diplomats do not enjoy the full protection of the Vienna Convention, which provides immunity.
We are confident that we will be able to clarify this matter with our British friends in a satisfactory manner. “
It is a deal that Brussels will not accept. “Ensuring reciprocity on the basis of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is a common practice among equal partners, and we are confident that we will be able to clarify this issue with our British friends in a satisfactory manner,” Borrell’s spokesman, Peter Stano, told La Vanguardia.
The BBC provided information about this diplomatic row, adding that Borrell wrote a letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, expressing “grave concern” about this dispute.
Borrell’s arguments are based on the particular characteristics of the European Union. The European Union is not a “model” international organization, given that considerable powers have been transferred to it by member states, it has the power to adopt legislation that binds its partners and has its own institutions and a specific judicial oversight system; In addition to creating a single currency.
The status of the European Union in external complaints
On the one hand, it indicates that the United Kingdom, as a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty, is well aware of the position of the European Union in external relations and that, while it has been a partner in the European Union, it has supported this position.
“Nothing has changed since the UK left the European Union to justify this change of position on the part of the UK,” says Stano.
Brussels also indicates that the European Union has 143 delegations, equivalent to diplomatic missions, spread all over the world. Without exception, all states grant these delegations and their personnel equivalent status to the countries’ diplomatic missions under the Vienna Convention, and Borrell’s team insists that the UK is well aware of this fact.
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