Bremain in Spain chair ‘disappointed’ after British High Court refuses appeal on Brexit referendum

Bremain in Spain chair ‘disappointed’ after British High Court refuses appeal on Brexit referendum

Mar 2, 2019 | Articles, News

Sue Wilson, head of Bremain, said hearings at the Court of Appeal had shown there was a need to review the 2016 referendum result.

Wilson is the lead claimant of the UK in EU Challenge, a legal appeal launched with backing from expatriates in Spain, France and Italy.

“We still believe another referendum is likely and hopefully this will be conducted in a fair, legal and honest manner under increased scrutiny,” Wilson said.

The Court of Appeal’s Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Lord Justice Haddon-Cave ruled in favour of an earlier decision not to permit an appeal.

The court heard from Jessica Simor QC, acting on behalf of the claimants, that it was unreasonable for Prime Minister Theresa May to proceed with Article 50.

Sir James Eadie QC, First Treasury Counsel acting for the government, said the court had no scope to intervene now that Parliament had taken over the Article 50 process.

It comes after an Electoral Commission referred Leave campaigns to police after finding they spent more than the legal limit during the 2016 campaign.

Article from the Euro Weekly News
Sue Wilson Writes: Remainers must forgive fellow Brits in Spain who fell for the Brexit lie

Sue Wilson Writes: Remainers must forgive fellow Brits in Spain who fell for the Brexit lie

Feb 25, 2019 | Articles, News, Sue Wilson Writes

There’s no doubt that Brexit has caused a deep rift in society, often dividing colleagues, friends and families. In this week’s column Sue Wilson from the Bremain in Spain campaign group says remain voters must forgive fellow Britons in Spain who fell for the Brexit lie.

When I speak to people in the UK, I’m commonly asked: “Is it true that some Brits living in Spain voted for Brexit?” People seem genuinely surprised when I confirm it’s true. They frequently ask: “Isn’t that like turkeys voting for Christmas?”

The next question is, inevitably: “But why?” I’ve pondered that many times over, as have other pro-EU campaigners living in Europe.

In my role as chair of Bremain in Spain, a campaign group that works to stop Brexit, with a membership of Remainers, it would be easy to ignore the question altogether. Spending so much time in a Remainer “echo chamber”, I could almost forget the Leave side. However, it’s important to understand opposing views.

The reasons why some Brits in Spain voted Leave are the same reasons that Brits in the UK voted for Brexit. Whether they believed Turkey was about to join the EU (it isn’t), that the UK doesn’t control its borders (it does), or the infamous lie mounted on the side of the red bus, I believe most people wanted what was best for the UK. They voted for a better life for themselves and their families, even if Brexit could never deliver it.

I frequently hear of conversations – sometimes heated, sometimes fatal – between families, friends and colleagues, on different sides of the debate. The divisions created by Brexit are deep and strongly-held. They run against previous groupings that were based largely on socio-demographic background and political inclination. Many people have lost some old connections and have replaced them with strong, new ones, forged in unlikely places.

A common belief of Leavers in Spain is that Brexit would change nothing – life would continue as before. In some ways, that could be true for Brits living in Spain, especially for those with disposable income and/or a bolthole in the UK. In the event of Brexit, especially a hard one, we would avoid the immediate issues faced by UK residents, such as food shortages and price increases.

However, the impact could be felt re travel/visa requirements, the potential further devaluation of sterling, or a reduction in our rights and freedoms. Some of these could have significant consequences for us.

The truth is that we don’t know all the implications – we don’t even know what Brexit might look like at present. Furthermore, a forthcoming snap election in Spain could impact the Brexit bilateral negotiations. I have a good understanding of the situation, but even my crystal ball can’t predict the future under these circumstances!

Read Sue’s full article in The Local

Costa Collateral: The sad fate of Britain’s Brexpats

Costa Collateral: The sad fate of Britain’s Brexpats

Feb 25, 2019 | Articles, News

It is a typically tranquil winter afternoon at the Chambao de Vicente restaurant.

Its rustic terrace spills out onto the golden sands of the Playa La Herradura, a beach running parallel to the small Spanish Costa del Sol town of the same name.

The clientele is a mix of both immigrants – British, Germans and Swedes – and Spaniards, their jovial laughter perforating the sound of the nearby rolling waves.

Yet, once lunch has been cleared, the sleepy restaurant wakes with a jolt as a group of British diners gathers to unfurl a European Union flag.

“We want to stay with you!” whoops one woman.  “Yes,” exclaims another, “Bollocks to Brexit!”

The good-natured gang are received well by other patrons, many of whom rush over to be photographed with the Brits.

The group are members of Bremain in Spain, an organisation set up in the wake of the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

Bremain in Spain not only campaigns for the UK to Remain but also lobbies British, Spanish and EU politicians to protect the rights of British immigrants in Spain.

Membership of the group has swollen over the last few months to include more than 5,000 activists with the increase attributed to concerns that Brits in Spain have been all but forgotten by Theresa May. A number of other worried groups exist across the country.

Just the day before the lunch in La Herradura, the Brexpats in Spain organisation held two public meetings in the towns of Benalmadena and Mijas.

“We had two informative public talks on the coast, both attended by more than 200 worried Brits,” explains Sharon Hitchcock, a volunteer for Brexpats in Spain.

“During our meetings we have found that there are a lot of confused people who are finding the whole process quite overwhelming.”

More Brits call Spain home than any other country in the EU27 – 310,000, although this figure is thought to be as low as a third of the actual number, with temporary residents, dual nationals and those not registering with the Spanish authorities making up the rest.

Read the full article in The New European

Sue Wilson Writes: How Spain treats Britons over Brexit is in the hands of the UK

Sue Wilson Writes: How Spain treats Britons over Brexit is in the hands of the UK

Feb 21, 2019 | Articles, News, Sue Wilson Writes

While there have been warm words and encouraging promises from Spain towards Britons in the country, the reality is their futures depend on the UK government and people have lost faith in it, says Sue Wilson from the Bremain in Spain campaign group.

How many times, over the last 31 months, have Brits living in the EU been told not to worry? As frequently, I imagine, as EU citizens in the UK have heard the same words.

Since the start of the negotiations in March 2017, our rights as citizens were one of three priorities up for negotiation. It was going to be easy, apparently, as nothing was going to change, and our lives would not be affected.

We might have believed it at the time, as the EU seemed keen to preserve the status quo. Brexit would not undermine our rights in any way, shape or form.

The initial offer from the EU provided reassurance. That is, until the Department for Exiting the European Union became involved. Prime Minister Theresa May rejected the EU’s initial offer and came back with her own inferior counter-offer. Not only that: May acted as if she were making the first offer!

It comes as no surprise, after viewing May’s time at the Home Office, that her driving ambition was to reduce immigration numbers. Having set an impossibly low target of tens of thousands of EU immigrants, May immediately starting taking rights and freedoms off the table for EU citizens. Naturally, the EU responded by removing rights from the table for British citizens in the EU.

Campaign groups, such as British in Europe, of which Bremain in Spain is a founding member, and the 3Million, have worked tirelessly to protect citizens’ rights. Despite their best efforts, the Withdrawal Agreement sees our rights downgraded and leaves important gaps, causing much anxiety. These include the loss of freedom of movement and the failure to recognise professional qualifications.

For many, the rights secured in the Withdrawal Agreement, such as healthcare and pensions, provided relief from the ongoing Brexit nightmare. However, that relief was always tempered with the constant ringing in our ears of May’s “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. Also, while May’s deal might have been agreed with the EU, there’s still no agreement with the UK parliament, or any sign of an agreement on the horizon.

Read the full article in The Local

Brexit: Why have British citizens in the EU been left to fight for their own rights?

Brexit: Why have British citizens in the EU been left to fight for their own rights?

Feb 21, 2019 | Articles, News

Groups of volunteers are spending all their time and hard-earned cash on fighting for the rights of Britons across the EU who are directly affected by Brexit. The British government needs to finally make the 1.2 million citizens in the EU a real priority and ease the burden on campaigners, writes Ben McPartland.

Last week a team of volunteers in different parts of France worked late into the night trying to interpret the newly published French law that spells out what will happen in the case of a no-deal Brexit.

The volunteers, who form the “citizens rights” team at Remain in France Together (RIFT), put aside their normal lives and got on with the job of providing information to the thousands of anxious Brits who were waiting desperately for news of what their futures might hold if Britain crashes out of the EU in a few weeks’ time.

These are the same team of volunteers who have spent their own money travelling to Paris to lobby the French government to alert them to the issues Britons are facing across the country.

Of course, it’s not just in France where unpaid volunteers have taken it upon themselves to explain the impact of Brexit on health cover, driving licenses and residency rights and basically to stick up for the citizens’ rights of anxious Britons, whose lives and health have been damaged by nearly three years of limbo.

Read full story in The Local

‘Quizás no hayamos sido conscientes de todo lo que la Unión Europea podía ofrecer antes del referéndum’

‘Quizás no hayamos sido conscientes de todo lo que la Unión Europea podía ofrecer antes del referéndum’

Feb 21, 2019 | Articles, News

Pregunta.- El ideario de Bremain in Spain se basa en una Europa con Reino Unido. ¿Por qué este hecho es tan importante?
Respuesta.- Para todos aquellos que han pasado años viviendo en España, siendo parte de Europa y sintiéndose europeos, es muy importante. Somos afortunados de tener la ventaja de las libertades y beneficios que nos ha ofrecido ser parte de la Unión Europea. Sería una pena que nuestros hijos y nietos no pudieran tener las mismas oportunidades que nosotros hemos podido disfrutar. Quizás no hayamos sido conscientes de todo lo que la UE tenía que ofrecer antes del referéndum: lo dimos por sentado. El referéndum lo ha cambiado todo, y ahora entendemos lo que tanto nosotros como Reino Unido podemos perder, pero seguiremos luchando para protegerlo.
 
P.-El 25% de los británicos que viven en España son personas mayores jubiladas. ¿Cómo puede incidir el brexit en su estadía?
R.- Actualmente, los mayores reciben atención médica gratuita y sus pensiones se actualizan cada año. El Gobierno británico ha prometido seguir protegiendo esos derechos, pero es una promesa en la que no tenemos mucha fe, especialmente cuando escuchamos muy a menudo la expresión “no se acuerda nada hasta que se acuerda todo”. Durante las negociaciones, ambas partes se han negado a “poner en valor” el acuerdo sobre los derechos existentes de los ciudadanos para protegernos del peor escenario.
 
Full article in entremayores