Expats to lobby UK MPs

The event, organised with ‘the3million’ group for other EU citizens living in the UK, is aimed at asking MPs to fully protect the rights of expats to ensure everyone can stay where they have chosen to live after Brexit.

The idea is for as many people as possible to contact their UK MPs as well as lords to arrange to meet them at parliament on that day to raise concerns about rights and tell them how they are affected by Brexit. A rally, with speakers, will also be held.

Action is planned in person in London as well as over social media (for details see: britishineurope.org/mass-lobby-13th-sept/).

This is timed to take place between two rounds of official talks and before the European Council summit on October 19-20. The summit is when leaders will decide if enough progress has been made in the exit deal talks for a ‘second phase’ to open in parallel to discuss the ‘future relationship’ including trade. Many commentators consider such a decision by October to be doubtful at the current position.

This comes as the UK released new papers exploring issues such as cooperation between the UK and EU courts, customs and ways of resolving future disputes.

The UK government has said it will seek a ‘transition period’ of up to three years, during which it would like elements of the status quo to stay in place before a full ‘future relationship’ agreement comes into force.

The paper on customs matters says the UK wants trade to continue in as ‘frictionless’ a manner as possible, retaining a ‘close association with the EU customs union for a time-limited interim period’. It is unclear, however, if the EU will agree to this and on what conditions and if the UK will be able to sign any new trade deals during such a period (it is reported to be scoping out possible new deals with 11 countries including the US, Australia and China).

Talks on ‘transition arrangements’ are expected to form part of the ‘second phase’, which the EU insists will not start unless leaders are satisfied with progress on the exit agreement, notably expats’ rights, the Northern Ireland border and the UK’s ‘bill’ (it is likely however that any such arrangements would be detailed in the exit deal).

On going to press it was expected that these would be among the areas to be explored more fully in the third round of negotiations at the end of August, though the UK had yet to release a paper in response to the EU one about the bill that was published on May 29.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out on the ‘bill’ issue, saying it is about meeting obligations the UK entered into and it must not be portrayed as a ‘fine’.

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has now conceded that the UK will “meet our legal obligations as we understand them” because “we are law-abiding, bill-paying people”. A previous remark that the EU could “go whistle” related only to claims that the bill might reach €100billion, he said.

EU chiefs have not insisted on a final figure being agreed at this stage but have said that the UK must engage with their proposals on what items are covered by the bill.

On expat rights, talks in July resulted in agreement on some key areas but disagreement or uncertainty on others. BiE have since expressed concern at the failure of both sides to recognise that expats may have ‘acquired rights which cannot be taken away’. It says this is an ‘apparent U-turn’ by the EU on allowing existing expats to retain lifetime rights of free movement in the EU, and the intention of both sides to retain a rule that ‘permanent residence’ rights are lost after two years away.

The group points out that the latter rule, which exists under EU law for EU citizens moving between EU states, is not a major concern for those with free movement rights, but could become one after Brexit if those rights no longer exist for Britons in the EU or EU citizens in the UK.

Many people may have good reasons to leave for more than two years, says BiE, such as study or looking after an elderly relative.

Other concerns flagged up included the EU’s failure to concede voting rights in local elections and a failure to discuss ‘ring-fencing’ of any agreement on citizen’s rights so that it could stand alone even if the parties do not agree on matters such as the bill.

The mass lobby event will follow a People’s March for Europe – a protest against Brexit being organised on September 9 (https://peoplesmarch4eu.org/). On this day James Chapman, a PR executive and the former head of the office of Brexit Minister David Davis, has claimed he will launch a new anti-Brexit party called The Democrats. However his recent stream of controversial tweets on the topic had come to an abrupt halt on going to press.

Data from the UK’s Office of National Statistics shows migration to the UK has dropped markedly since the Brexit vote. This is mostly down to a net reduction of immigration by EU citizens by 52,000, largely due to people from eastern European countries such as Poland leaving or arriving in lesser numbers than before. At the same time, some estate agents report a hike in sales to Britons seeking to move to France.