The Brief: Being fully in the know is a hard currency in Brussels. That's why decision makers on all levels are in meetings almost every day. As Brexit is getting closer, the UK government has announced plans to pull its diplomats out of most EU meetings.
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Being fully in the know is a hard currency in Brussels. That's why decision-makers on all levels are in meetings almost every day.
As Brexit is getting closer, the UK government has announced plans to pull its diplomats out of most EU meetings.
Besides sending a political message, London wants its representatives to spend their time more constructively on other issues.
A short-sighted decision, according to analysts, as Georgina Wright from the Institute for Government explains.
"If you miss out on certain meetings, you are not getting the full story. You're getting bits here and bits there. But you're missing those conversations over coffee, walking outside of the room, in the corridor, and crucially the UK will only be a member state until the 31st of October.
“And so it would be really interesting and probably wise for British diplomats to be in as many meetings as possible in the run-up to the exit."
But Boris Johnson thinks otherwise, actually doing the exact opposite of his predecessor who had dispatched even more diplomats to Brussels.
The reason: making sure that London wouldn't miss a beat. Georgina Wright explains further.
"Theresa May's approach was thinking, well, if our diplomats are no longer part of those meetings once we have left, then we really need to beef up our presence in Brussels and in different member states, because it is going to be a lot harder to get that information about what's going on."
Johnson is clearly hedging his bets, hoping that his one-vote majority will hold over the next nine weeks.