EU news: Brexiteer savages bloc after MEP urges Brussels to snub UK ambassador | World | News

And fellow Brexiteer Robert Oulds, director of the Bruges Group think tank, said it was imperative that the UK holds the line against Brussels, especially in the light of what he termed its “vaccine bullying”. Both were responding to a tweet by Dacian Ciolos, the leader of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.

Mr Ciolos, a former prime minister of Romania, tweeted: “Regret the UK Government has still not recognised the EU Ambassador to the UK @ValedeAlmeidaEU, vital for the strong EU/UK relations we need.

“This morning I proposed that @Europarl_EN leaders should not meet the new UK representative in Brussels until this is resolved.”

He was referring to the refusal by the UK government to grant full diplomatic privileges to Portuguese civil servant Joao Vale de Almeida, despite his official job title being Ambassador of the European Union to the United Kingdom, the basis that the EU is not a nation-state.

Mr Oulds added: “The British government must show that it means business.

“And will not tolerate their vaccine bullying nor shameful treatment of Northern Ireland.

“The UK should not recognise the apparatchiks from bureaucracies only those of legitimate governments.

“It is time the nation-states were put at the centre of Europe, not the failing functionnaires.

“The UK must stand firm and deal with genuine ambassadors from real countries not from the EU.”

Last month the BBC obtained a copy of a letter sent by Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in which he said London’s proposals on the issue failed to offer a reasonable basis for agreement.

Mr Borrell wrote: “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 third country.”

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman subsequently said all those involved in the EU delegation would get “the privileges and immunities necessary to allow them to carry out their work” but did not say if that amounted to full diplomatic status.