The US administration actually lowered the rank of the EU representative in Washington and “forgot” to inform both the EU Ambassador David O’Sullivan and his colleagues in Brussels.

So far – as a sign of special relations between the US and the European Union-European representatives in Washington were treated as diplomats of the allied state. However, not so long ago, EU Ambassador David O’Sullivan moved to the US diplomatic list on the state Department website in the category of “heads of missions of international organizations” and now after him – only the representative of the African Union and the chargé d’affaires of countries that currently have no ambassadors to the United States. Formally, and this was confirmed by the spokesman of the European Commission Maja Kocijancic, the American administration had a right to. “We are currently negotiating, but you know perfectly well that the EU is an international organization,” she told reporters.

A special body of the European Parliament for relations with the United States in a letter to the US Congress expressed concern about more “harming” the transatlantic relationship approach of the White House: “When President Trump, Secretary of state Pompeo and the US Ambassador to the European Union Sondland talking about Europe, they criticize the EU for its bureaucracy, make no secret of the fact that prefer to deal with individual member States on a bilateral basis, and praise of populist and nationalist movements. An unexpected development of this was the news that the EU Ambassador to the United States lost his position in the diplomatic hierarchy and was moved down and left at the end of the list. This is not the case with partners, especially since neither the high representative of the Union for foreign Affairs and security policy nor the EU Ambassador have been formally notified of the changes, as is customary in diplomatic practice.”

Indeed, according to the German radio station Deutsche Welle, last year the EU Ambassador in Washington did not receive an invitation to some events, on which were invited the heads of diplomatic missions of other States. But a clear change in his status was at parting with the former US President George Bush in early December. At the ceremony O’Sullivan was supposed to come out in the first twenty ambassadors, in order of seniority, since he has been in office since 2014, however, he was invited the last and was not warned about this in advance.