EU officials have been told not to hold meetings with UK counterparts unless they are strictly related to the war in Ukraine or are ‘legally mandatory’, in the latest indication of frosty relations between Brussels and London.
In a note circulated to senior European
Commission officials, which was seen by EURACTIV, the Secretary-General
of the Commission Ilze Juhansone requested that “all
Directorates-General and Services inform the Secretariat-General of any
requests for bilateral meetings with United Kingdom officials or United
Kingdom stakeholders to be made or that have been received, irrespective
of the level of seniority.”
Meetings should only take place if they
are “legally mandatory”, relate to the implementation of the Withdrawal
Agreement, or relate strictly to the war in Ukraine.
“Declining a meeting request should be
explained on the basis of the recent developments in the EU-United
Kingdom relations,” the Commission’s top civil servant added.
Brussels and London have been at
loggerheads over a number of issues since the new Trade and Cooperation
Agreement governing EU-UK relations came into force in 2021, including
the Northern Ireland protocol and UK access to the Horizon Europe
research programme, with both sides having launched infringement
proceedings against the other.
However, at a meeting of the UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (PPA) in London earlier this week, Commission Vice President Maroš
Šefčovič insisted that he did not believe the EU and the UK were
“worlds apart” on resolving the implementation of the protocol.
“If there is political will, I’m sure that
we can sort it out within a couple of weeks because our negotiating
teams know these topics from all angles,” he said. ...
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