Many rights covering pensions and healthcare are now agreed and protected, barring unforeseen difficulties with concluding the overall deal – and are set out in a joint UK/EU report on phase 1.
However the rights have not been ring-fenced and the principle that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’ remains.
Some campaigners are also concerned that certain other rights issues may now be shelved as talks move on. These include ‘onward’ free movement in the EU, allowing, for example, a Briton living in France to later move to Spain with the same protections.
Also, due to UK demands for EU expats living in the UK to have to apply for a right of residence, proved with a card – rather than it being automatically given – EU countries will now be able to demand the same of Britons living there. It will be for the individual host country to decide. The EU had wanted the current system whereby residence is an automatic right that can, if individuals so wish, be supported with a card, to continue.
Hopes of expats being offered an optional ‘associate EU citizenship’ have also not been advanced.
An agreement between British PM Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that talks may move on was hailed by Mrs May as ‘good news for people who voted leave’ who were worried Brexit might not happen and ‘good news for people who voted remain, who were worried we were going to crash out without a deal’.
Speaking to Parliament she said: “We are going to leave, but we are going to do so in a smooth and orderly way.”
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However shortly after, comments by Mrs May and UK negotiator David Davis upset Mr Juncker and European Parliament (EP) Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt. The Britons implied the agreement was not legally binding and was “just a statement of intent” and would depend on the UK getting a good trade deal. Mr Davis later stated he had actually meant it was “more than just legally enforceable”.
The comments led to amendments being added to an EP resolution backing ‘sufficient progress’ which said ‘negotiations can only progress if the UK government fully respects the commitments it made in the joint report’.
Mr Juncker also said: “We will not accept any backtracking from the UK on commitments... all our points of agreement are now closed.”
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An exit with no deal would leave British expats here ‘in limbo’ after Brexit (set to happen on March 29, 2019) and reliant on the decisions of the French government, which has declined to say how it would react to this scenario. A ‘no deal’ is now thought less likely due to the ‘progress’ made.
UK Conservative MP Roger Gale, who said he spoke to Mrs May about expat rights, said: “She reaffirmed that UK citizens living in the rest of the EU will continue to enjoy the same uprated pension rights, access to healthcare and health-related exportable benefits as at present. I hope this offers at least some reassurance.”
The latest table put out by the EU and UK on rights shows agreement across the board (former versions showed areas of disagreement or uncertainty but these have now been removed).
EU sources previously told Connexion that talks finalising ‘phase 1’ matters would continue in parallel with phase 2 talks, however the new joint report shows this is not likely to focus on expat rights but on other phase 1 areas such as the divorce bill and border issues relating to Ireland.
Regarding the rights issues that were formerly under dispute, the parties have come to compromises or agreed they may be set aside or addressed when considering the ‘future relationship’.
Rights campaigners the British in Europe (BiE) coalition warned in the run-up to December’s summit that a ‘sufficient progress’ decision could mean remaining rights issues being ‘swept under the carpet’ as talks moved on. They say this has now happened.
They are especially concerned that ‘onward free movement’ has been left out, saying this could badly affect many whose careers require flexibility to move to other EU countries in the future or work in them. However the deal does protect ‘frontier workers’: those who at the time of Brexit are living in one EU country and working in another. They say a mere guarantee of being able to continue living in the countries where expats are established before Brexit falls short of what had originally been promised.
BiE chairwoman Jane Golding, a lawyer who lives in Germany, said: “After 18 months of wrangling, the UK and EU have sold 4.5m people down the river in a grubby bargain that will have a severe impact on ordinary people’s ability to live their lives as we do now.”
BiE are also unhappy that Britons stand to lose their ‘automatic residency rights’ and may have to have cards.
Speaking of the decision to limit free movement to the existing country of residence, Debbie Williams of BiE group Brexpats: Hear Our Voice called this “carving up legally-exercised treaty rights to suit a political farce”.
The EP, which has an advisory role – but also a veto on the final deal if a majority of MEPs vote against it – also supported onward movement in its resolution, calling it one of the outstanding issues that should be resolved before Brexit. It also stated that expats should merely have to ‘declare’ their residency rights, as opposed to applying for them to be granted.
It reminded the EU leaders that many Britons are upset over losing EU citizenship and asked them to consider how to mitigate this without changing EU treaties and respecting reciprocity.
