Thread by @JenniferMerode

Global Britain? Boris Johnson doesn’t want a formal foreign policy deal with the EU and that leaves European allies puzzled and disappointed.
Here is a look at foreign policy - the Brexit orphan issue.

theguardian.com/world/2020/jun…

EU-UK foreign policy and security links will be weaker without formal deal, says @NathalieLoiseau @EP_defence.

“The UK is an ally in Nato, but there are a few significant topics on which if there is no formal framework the co-operation will not be the same as before.”

@NathalieLoiseau Here are Nathalie Loiseau's impressions of UK diplomacy in the age of Brexit. “We don’t hear much from the UK right now, on issues like Iran or Syria or Libya. Even in Nato the voice of the UK is much weaker than it used to be. It may be temporary … but that’s a fact.”

Weaker in what ways. Loiseau cites intelligence, CFSP missions - UK took part in 25/35 albeit often on small scale - and the Galileo satellite. The EU was mulling offering UK unprecedented access to the encrypted signal. Not any more... theguardian.com/politics/2018/…

The British government's response is why bother… why have a “clunky institutional framework” when we are already working with the EU on so many issues, from Iran to Russia to climate change.

Here is their point. EU foreign policy is always a work in progress. Foreign minister meetings can be an exercise in finding the lowest-common denominator - a “valley of tears” according to the current EU high rep Josep Borrell.

And here is the but.

EU can be effective in acting as a bloc - inc acting in line with UK policy/interests - see sanctions against Russia in 2014 and the response to the Salisbury poisonings, seen as a diplomatic triumph by British diplomats.

But I haven’t spoken to a single EU source who thinks co-operation won’t go backwards as a result. No formal way to cooperate on sanctions, development aid, agree positions in the UN, or joint operations, such as peacekeeping or trying to build the rule of law.

Some MS worry about London, Paris and Berlin squeezing EU out of big foreign policy issues, although flexible formats already there - E3, Normandy format.
Others say EU-UK ad-hockery will be found wanting in the next big foreign policy crisis.

For EU, also a jarring sort of message about Global Britain. EU diplomat: “They say we are leaving the EU but not leaving Europe, but if you don’t want to create a framework on foreign and security challenges with your European partners, you are leaving Europe somehow.”

And for some, an irritant as Boris Johnson signed up to foreign and defence policy co-operation in the political declaration last October. Michel Barnier said recently “I still don’t understand why” UK doesn’t want this agreement. Bafflement.

Some EU sources draw a (sort-of) silver lining - that a future British government will want closer ties with the EU, as common interests take centre stage.

But for now, for the EU, UK is seen as having just walked out of the house into a hurricane and nobody understands why.