Despite claims UK would skip most ministerial meetings in Brussels to focus on Brexit, officials have attended more than half

The British government has been accused of making “another silly gesture” after it emerged that UK officials attended slightly more than half of EU ministerial meetings since a pledge to skip “most” of them to focus on Brexit.

Since the government announced it would abandon most EU meetings from 1 September, a British minister or official has attended eight out of 15 ministerial meetings, according to research by the Guardian.

The purpose of mostly quitting the EU council of ministers – one of the bloc’s most powerful decision-making bodies – was to allow officials to focus on UK’s “future relationship with the EU and other partners around the world” the government had said in the summer.

Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay said attendance would be reduced by “over half” to “free up time for ministers and their officials to get on with preparing for our departure on 31 October and seizing the opportunities that lie ahead”.

Barclay attended an EU council last week dedicated to EU enlargement in the western Balkans. With Brexit talks at a crucial stage, he also met Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney, as well as ministers or officials from Poland, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Separately, Boris Johnson took the floor during a debate between European leaders on EU enlargement into the Balkans, after clinching his Brexit deal last Thursday.

Three other ministers attended EU meetings after 1 September. Sajid Javid joined European finance ministers in Helsinki for a discussion on EU financial market rules. At the monthly foreign affairs council, Middle East minister Andrew Murrison agreed the UK would take part in EU-wide restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey, in response to the offensive in northern Syria. Following the EU move, the UK said it was suspending the sale of arms to Turkey that might be used in Syria, without spelling out how that would be determined.

Energy minister Lord Duncan also joined his counterparts to discuss the EU’s 2050 climate targets under the Paris agreement, earlier in October.

The government said it would attend meetings in “the national interest”, especially those concerning Brexit, foreign policy, security or finance. But British officials have also taken part in talks touching on the EU’s post-Brexit future.

The UK’s deputy ambassador to Brussels, Katrina Williams, attended all-day talks on reforming the common agricultural policy and the EU fisheries fund after 2020, as well as preparations for the EU’s annual negotiations with Norway on fishing quotas.

Katrina Williams (@UKEUDeputy) Here in #Luxembourg the #AGRIFISH meeting @EUCouncil is running into the night. Thanks to the wonderful #TeamUK @ukineu, we are enjoying a classic British treat - a takeaway curry #PlayingUpToNationalStereotypes pic.twitter.com/Himf7c7uWk



Another UK official attended a meeting of finance ministers to discuss the EU’s anti-money laundering action plan, while an unnamed UK representative took part in discussions on future EU trade policy.

The UK skipped meetings on the rule of law in Hungary, transport, energy and agriculture.

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, who chairs the European Parliament’s fisheries committee, said the empty chair policy was “just another silly gesture like not signing the letter”, referring to the prime minister’s grudging request for a Brexit delay beyond 31 October.

“As for the people who are not attending the meetings: they are phoning up their friends from other countries to find out what is going on so they can report back to Whitehall,” he said.

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Davies, an architect of recent reforms to the EU common fisheries policy, said the British government had fallen silent in his policy area. He contended that the UK could be blocking a proposed hike in EU subsidies for larger fishing fleets that risks exacerbating overfishing, were it not for a decision to be silent in meetings. “I’ve no doubt that the UK could have built up a blocking minority to prevent such unsustainable legislation, which could have prevented finance being used for purposes to promote unsustainable fishing.”

The empty chair policy is meant to free up officials to work on Brexit, but a former UK ambassador to the EU, Lord Hannay called the notion that staff could be redeployed so quickly “complete rubbish”. He condemned the policy as “a really futile gesture” that was “damaging to Britain’s interests” – points echoed by two other former UK ambassadors to Brussels, who said the gesture was “petulant” and “Boris Johnson playing poker”.

The empty chair policy applies to all EU meetings, including dozens of routine official-level ones not in the public domain. The government is understood to have taken part in fewer than half those meetings.

A UK government spokesperson said: “We have said that the UK will attend fewer than half of all EU meetings, and that is exactly what we have done.”