EU:s Josep Borrell: Sanktionerna kommer visst att ge effekt, men det kan ta tid.

The EU’s foreign policy chief has accused his top diplomats of being slow, ineffective and patronising towards the countries they work in, also berating them for failing to anticipate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This is not a moment when we are going to send flowers to all of you saying that you are beautiful, you work very well and we are very happy,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, told ambassadors who work for the EU’s external action service.

Borrell, a Spanish former foreign minister, who has a reputation for bluntness, lamented that the EU’s global diplomatic network was less informative than reading the papers. “Sometimes, I knew more of what was happening somewhere by reading the newspapers than reading your reports,” he said.