Brussels bureaucrats have “advised” EU states “not to respond” to an online questionnaire the UK has issued in a bid to reduce trade border delays caused by red tape.
The European Commission is reportedly “unhappy” that British officials asked member states directly about how they are equipped to facilitate new checks on goods coming into the UK.
Brussels is said to have branded the UK’s request for information about each EU state’s “capacity to issue sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) export certificates” as “problematic”.
And an official at the EU’s health directorate, DG Sante, reportedly fired off a written warning to officials at the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
It advised them against using channels outside the EU-UK trade agreement for communication, according to documents obtained by a British newspaper.
However, even a leading remainer is among those criticising Brussels for its heavy-handed approach. And Brexiteer John Redwood has accused the EU of being “unfriendly when it would be much more sensible for them to be cooperative as they export a lot more to us than we export to them.”
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who voted Remain but self-describes as a ‘moderate eurosceptic’, appeared to agree. He said that Brussels “could have treated it a bit more lightly. It is not exactly a capital offence”.
David Davis, the UK’s first Brexit secretary, said that the EU “is always suspicious of any attempt to talk directly to member states.”
Davis added that “good diplomacy tries to understand the person you are negotiating with, or dealing with, always”.