US downgrades EU’s diplomatic status

The European Union says the United States government has changed the bloc’s diplomatic status in Washington, in practice downgrading it.

According to BBC, the Trump administration did not notify the EU about the change. The EU has asked the US to explain the move, EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic says.

Previously it has been US practice to treat the EU delegation and ambassador “as a country would be”, an EU source told the BBC. The US ranks the diplomatic status of international organisations lower.

The EU source, who declined to be named, said the US had changed the way the diplomatic list was implemented, but not the list itself, which describes the EU as an international organisation.

The US state department’s order of precedence says the head of an international organisation “should be considered equivalent to a chief of state or head of government, but should be listed in precedence order, after all official representatives of the sovereign nation’s present“.

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The change comes amid heightened trade tensions, with the EU anxious to dissuade President Donald Trump from slapping a 20 percent tariff on all imported EU cars. Last year the US and EU imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on a range of goods.

Ms Kocijancic said: “We understand that there was a recent change in the way the diplomatic precedence list is implemented by the United States” Protocol.

“We are discussing with the relevant services in the US administration possible implications for the EU delegation in Washington. We were not notified of any change. We expect the diplomatic practice established some years ago to be observed.”

She stressed that the EU and US “remain natural partners, natural friends”.