Britain’s Black Belt in EU Law Pulls No Punches in Brexit Attack

(Bloomberg) --

Brexit's postponement meant it wasn't her last day in the job. But Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston, one of the U.K.'s top legal officials at the European Union's courts, let rip anyway.

In a valedictory address, the karate black-belt made a thinly veiled attack at penny-pinching Brexit supporters who, according to her, seem to know the cost of the EU but not its value.

“Playing one's proper part in solidarity with fellow Europeans cannot be based on a penny-pinching cost-benefit analysis along the lines (familiar, alas, from Brexiteer rhetoric) of ‘what does the EU cost me per week and what exactly do I personally get out of it?',” Sharpston warned.

She made the comments in an opinion chiding Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for their refusal to apply EU rules aimed at providing a safe haven to refugees.

Venturing into political territory where few judges or advocates general dare to tread, she added that “such self-centredness is a betrayal of the founding fathers' vision for a peaceful and prosperous continent. It is the antithesis of being a loyal member state and being worthy, as an individual, of shared European citizenship.”

Click here to read more about Eleanor Sharpston

For Sharpston, a strict believer in the EU and the rule of law, “if the European project is to prosper and go forward, we must all do better than that.”

The EU court took the unusual step of reading out decisions in a number of cases on Thursday, in a week that is a judicial holiday for the judges. Most of the cases read out were ones Sharpston had worked on.

The terms of Sharpston, 64, and the two British judges at the EU courts would cease once their nation has left the 28-nation bloc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman, Christopher Elser

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