Mr Henkel, the vice-chair of the committee on industry, pinned the blame on Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, saying he had only included one of the committee’s suggestions in his draft Brexit document.
In a shock letter sent to the committee’s Chairman Jerzy Buzek, Mr Henkel, a former head of Germany’s industry lobby BDI, said the former Belgian prime minister had ignored “the interests of the people in the industry sector, energy sector or the research community for the sake of a fanatic vision, which was one of the decisive factors leading to Brexit in the first place,” in a letter seen by politics news site, Politico.co.uk.
This is not the first time Mr Henkel, a leading member of the Parliament’s third-biggest group, the European Conservative and Reformists, has attacked EU bosses.
The German previously claimed Mr Verhofstadt and Jean-Claude Juncker’s anti-Brexit rhetoric provided easy ammunition to Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage during the Leave campaign.
This morning, British MEP Janice Atkinson threw down the gauntlet to the European Parliament Brexit negotiator.
Speaking at the EU parliament in Strasbourg, she accused Mr Verhofstdat of being a “socialist” and “communist” and said that any document produced by him and the bloc would be unacceptable for the British people.
She said: “Any document that has been produced by Mrs Merkel’s people, Mr Verhofstadt, the socialist and the communist sitting opposite, would be totally unacceptable to the British people.”
Last week Mr Verhofstadt was in London to meet Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss Brexit.
As he praised the PM for a series of “very useful” meetings, he hinted Brexit talks could finally move on to trade in few weeks once the issue of citizens’ rights was concluded. But he said Mrs May must offer more detail on her Government’s demands.
He tweeted: ” PM May needed to move beyond vague aspirations.
“While I welcome the call for a deep and special partnership, this cannot be achieved by putting a few extra cherries on the Brexit cake.”