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‘Open a history book’: EU hits back at Hunt over Soviet comparison

Luke James
·Brussels correspondent

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has been set some history homework by the EU’s leadership after comparing the bloc to the Soviet Union.

Hunt sparked controversy on Sunday by claiming the EU was trying to “punish” the UK for leaving and accusing them of taking a Soviet-style stance to Brexit talks.

He told Conservative conference: “The EU was set up to protect freedom. It was the Soviet Union that stopped people leaving.

“The lesson from history is clear: if you turn the EU club into a prison, the desire to get out won’t diminish it will grow – and we won’t be the only prisoner that will want to escape.”

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European Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas delivered a withering response when asked about Hunt’s comments on Monday.

“I would say respectfully that we would all benefit, and in particular foreign affairs ministers, from opening a history book from time to time,” he told reporters.

Schinas declined the chance to suggest a book to Hunt, but said: “There are lots of literature covering this dark period of European history.”

The European commissioner from Lithuania, Vytenis Andriukaitis, later offered to brief Hunt on the differences between the EU and USSR based on his personal experiences.

Hunt has also been rebuked by senior figures in other countries which experienced communist rule.

The Estonian ambassador to the UK, Tiina Intelmann, called his comparison “insulting.”

Latvia’s ambassador to the UK, Baiba Braze, said the EU had “brought prosperity” to her country after the Soviets had “killed, deported, exiled and imprisoned” its population.

Two days ahead of the 28th anniversary of German re-unification, the country’s Europe minister, Michel Roth, was the most senior politician to criticise Hunt.

European Council president Donald Tusk, who was jailed as a result of his activity in an anti-communist youth group in Poland during Soviet rule, has not yet made a comment.

But British MEP Molly Scot Cato said Hunt’s remarks would be deeply hurtful to him.

The comments risked undoing the diplomatic efforts Hunt has been leading in order to win support across the continent for the UK’s proposed Brexit deal, which included a visit to Latvia in August.

It is one of the formerly Soviet-ruled Baltic countries which, until now, have been perceived to be pro-UK in Brexit negotiations.

While no one of Hunt’s standing has made the comparison between the EU to the USSR, it is not a new one.

British eurosceptics like UKIP MEP Nigel Farage have advanced it regularly.

That prompted former European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to say recently that the “only benefit” of Brexit would be to disprove them.

Speaking in April, he said: “We are not the Soviet Union. We are the European Union. If a country is in the European Union it is because the country decided to be.

“That is the only benefit I can see of Brexit. We are showing the world that that we are free union of countries. If one country wants to leave it can leave.

“That was not the case with the Soviet Union or other old empires. We are not a union of diktat. We are a free union of free countries. This is very important.”

MORE: Ex-EU chief Barroso says Brexit proves bloc is ‘not like the Soviet Union’