EU tells Jeremy Hunt he could benefit from ‘opening a history book occasionally’

The European Commission has hit back at Jeremy Hunt after the foreign secretary used a speech at Conservative Party conference to compare EU membership to being occupied by the USSR.

A commission spokesperson suggested Mr Hunt was ignorant of history and could benefit “from opening a history book from time-to-time”.

The put-down follows strong criticism of the Cabinet minister’s comments from EU states that were occupied by the Soviet Union, as well as a string of senior British diplomats.

Baiba Braze, Latvia’s ambassador, said the USSR had “ruined lives of three generations” in her country while EU membership had brought “prosperity, equality, growth, respect”. Tiina Intelmann, the Estonian ambassador, said: “EU and USSR not comparable. Soviet regime was brutal, I lived under it, comparison is insulting.”

Vytenis Andriukaitis, Lithania’s EU commissioner took a more personal approach to his criticism.

“Dear Jeremy Hunt,” he said. “I was born in Soviet gulag and [have] been imprisoned by KGB a few times in my life. Happy to brief you on the main differences between EU and Soviet Union. And also why we escaped the USSR. Anytime. Whatever helps.”

Piling in for condemnation at home, Lord Ricketts, a former head of the Foreign Office, said Mr Hunt’s claim was “rubbish unworthy of a British foreign secretary”. The peer’s successor as Britain’s chief diplomat, Simon Fraser, said he agreed with his predecessor and that the foreign secretary had displayed a “shocking failure of judgement”.

Asked about Mr Hunt’s comments, chief spokesperson for the European Commission Margaritis Schinas told reporters in Brussels: “I would say respectfully that we would all benefit, and in particular foreign affairs ministers, from opening a history book from time-to-time.”

Responding to a journalist reporting Mr Hunt’s words on social media, Latvian ambassador Ms Braze said: “Just for your information – Soviets killed, deported, exiled and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Latvia’s inhabitants after the illegal occupation in 1940, and ruined lives of three generations, while the EU has brought prosperity, equality, growth, respect.”

Latvia, Estonia and Lithania were three of a number of states to be annexed by the USSR in the 1940s and later incorporated into it as a constituent republics. After gaining their independence in 1990 and 1991 they sought EU membership, finally joining the bloc in 2004.

The comments are likely to cause widespread anger across the EU at a time in talks when Britain desperately needs allies on the European Council. Donald Tusk, the president of the body, was active as an anti-Soviet student leader in Gdansk under Poland’s communist government – at the time a client state of the USSR.

Mr Tusk himself has said that the “tough and in fact uncompromising” stance struck by the British government, in particular Theresa May, had pushed EU leaders into hardening their own position and rejecting outright her Chequers Brexit trade plan.

Mr Hunt had told conference delegates: “What happened to the confidence and ideals of the European dream? 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.”

The EU has consistently said it respects the Brexit referendum result and that Britain will be leaving on 29 March 2019 barring a change of heart from UK politicians.