'Make sure your voices are heard on Brexit'

Campaign groups have urged Britons living in France to join them and make sure their voices will be heard, at a meeting held to discuss life after Brexit in Périgueux, Dordogne, on Friday.

The meeting was organised by two academics from Oxford, who are researching ways in which Britons in France and Spain are responding to Brexit.

On the platform were Roger Boaden, from Expats Citizen Rights in EU, John Shaw of Fair Deal for Expats, Brian Robinson from Remain in France Together, and Paul Fisher from Liberal Democrats in France. They spoke to an audience of about 80.

Those present revealed the high level of concern there is for the future on a range of topics including health, pensions, property, employment, future prospects for children and the anger and betrayal that has been felt since referendum result came in.

The campaign groups represented are now part of an umbrella organisation, the British in Europe Coalition which has around 35,000 members in total. They said there was strength in numbers and agreed that the present UK government is not doing enough to reassure its citizens living in the EU. They argued that there are many unilateral decisions and guarantees they could give, for example on pensions, before negotiations get under way.

There were several questions from the audience who said that on the whole they had found the meeting useful and informative and many thanked the campaign groups for the work they are doing.

You can a full report and find out just what the different campaigns are doing in the July issue of Connexion. To subscribe, click here.