No.10 denies claims PM is ignorant about expat rights

The article by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (‘FAZ’) newspaper’s politics editor, Thomas Gutschker, titled ‘The disastrous Brexit dinner’, has caused a furore with its claims about a dinner between Mrs May and EU chiefs last week which is said to have culminated with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker saying he was “10 times more sceptical than before” about the Brexit negotiations. It also claims Mr Juncker told German chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call afterwards that Mrs May “lives in a different galaxy”.

According to the report, they clashed over matters including Mrs May wanting to leave the ‘divorce costs’ issue to the end and talk immediately about free trade, whereas the EU chiefs had opposite priorities. The EU is said to believe the UK owes about €60-65bn, but Mrs May allegedly argued the UK is not obliged to pay anything.

The report also said that while Mrs May said she wanted to make Brexit “a success”, Mr Juncker retorted that “Brexit cannot be a success”. He reportedly said he did not want a “chaotic” exit, and wanted to keep good relations with London, but the UK would become a ‘third country’ to the EU, not even in the customs union as Turkey is, and he believes it will be worse off for it.

However one part of the FAZ article which is five pages long in its online version referred to the issue of expat rights in particular, over which the UK and EU are expected to try to negotiate mutually acceptable arrangements.

It said Mrs May wanted as a first priority to clarify the rights of the three million other EU citizens in the UK and over a million Britons in the EU – which fitted well, because it was also the EU’s top priority, the newspaper said. But the EU chiefs were then reportedly “amazed” when Mrs May said it could be resolved by the end of June, two weeks after the UK’s general election.

“For May it is no problem – EU citizens should be treated simply according to British law as other third-country nationals,” FAZ said, adding this was “a big problem for Juncker”.

The article said: “After all, they now enjoy many special rights which should be maintained as far as possible. There are tricky questions to be solved, not just on the right of residence. Health insurance, for example.”

Mr Juncker reportedly added: “I think you underestimate that Theresa”, before pulling out the trade agreement with Canada and Croatia’s EU accession agreement, which weighed 6kg and were thousands of pages long. The divorce treaty and the future free trade agreement would be at least as extensive, he allegedly said.

A spokesman for Number 10 Downing Street said: “The only thing the Prime Minister has said about the issue of EU expats in the UK and Britons in the EU is that she will be seeking to get an agreement on it at an early stage.

“The PM has referred to the FAZ article as ‘Brussels gossip’ while out campaigning, but all we have to say officially is that we do not recognise this account.

“As the PM and Juncker have both made clear this was a constructive meeting ahead of negotiations formally getting under way.”

Connexion has asked the European Commission and FAZ to comment on the claims and their source.

FAZ is a centre-right daily based in Frankfurt and is the German paper with the largest circulation abroad.