Brits Living in the EU are Not Reassured

Brits Living in the EU are Not Reassured

Dec 22, 2017 | Articles

Reply to PM’s letter to Brits in the EU…

Dear Theresa May,

Your Christmas message to ‘UK nationals living in Europe’ sought to reassure us.

We are not reassured.

Firstly, please stop the pretence that Brits in the EU have been your first priority from the very beginning and, incidentally, we do not refer to ourselves as “expats”.

We are immigrants, no different or better than any other EU citizen that has chosen to live in another EU country.

Had you really wanted to protect us, you would have accepted the EU’s initial offer on citizens’ rights. Instead, in an effort to remove rights and freedoms from EU citizens in the UK, you came back with a significantly inferior offer, which resulted in a downgrading of the EU offer.

You may well be delighted with your “achievements” but if you had been listening to us, you would know we’re not equally “delighted” because what’s currently on the table is less than we have now.

We moved to the EU in good faith and made life-changing decisions based on what we thought were known facts.

Read more, comment and share on ‘Reasons to Remain’ Facebook page…

 

One view on the move forward to Phase Two Brexit negotiations

One view on the move forward to Phase Two Brexit negotiations

Dec 19, 2017 | Articles, News

BREMAIN IN SPAIN a group campaigning for the UK to remain in the European Union and to protect the rights of British migrants living in Spain, comments on the confirmation by the European Council, last Friday, that Phase Two of the Brexit talks can start.

Sue Wilson, Chair of Bremain in Spain, commented: “It was no surprise that the European Council agreed Brexit negotiations can move on to Phase Two. Theresa May had hoped that this would mean the start of negotiations on trade but the EU has insisted that certain conditions must be met before trade talks can commence.

“It seems that the EU27 countries were not prepared to take May at her word – rather, they needed the agreements reached during Phase One to be more substantial than a handshake and a promise. Even with all the scurrying around from the Tory government, trade talks will not start until March 2018.

“While trade talks are on hold for now, it seems that the main focus of the next three months will be on a transition deal. The EU issued a statement on Friday outlining its guidelines and clarified that, during any transitional period the UK must abide by all EU membership rules. Therefore, the four freedoms would still apply and the UK would remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice – a situation unlikely to please the extreme Tory Brexiteers.”

Read full article in Euro Weekly News…

 

‘Sacrificed on the altar of trade’: Britons in EU feel betrayed by Brexit deal

‘Sacrificed on the altar of trade’: Britons in EU feel betrayed by Brexit deal

Dec 15, 2017 | Articles, News

British nationals living in mainland Europe say they are alarmed by claims that their rights have been protected by the Brexit deal sealed by Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker.

One Briton, Ingrid Taylor, who is settled in Germany, described claims that their rights were now guaranteed as “a barefaced lie”.

Brexit impacts on the future lives of an estimated 1.2 million Britons settled in mainland Europe, most of them working. They have accused May and Juncker of sacrificing them in the rush to sign off phase one of Brexit talks.

Taylor said that she believes the European commission has started to use British people in the rest of the EU as “bargaining chips” in reaction to the “intransigent stance” Theresa May took on EU citizens living in the UK.

“After what happened on Friday, the anger has risen,” she said. “We feel betrayed, we feel anger, we feel we have been sacrificed on the altar of trade.”

One of the biggest fears of such Britons is that they will remain “landlocked” in the country in which they now live, unable to move across borders to work for meetings, or for business contracts.

Read the full Guardian article…

Expats still none the wiser despite “sufficient progress” in Brexit talks

Expats still none the wiser despite “sufficient progress” in Brexit talks

Dec 15, 2017 | Articles, News

There was bitter disappointment from the organisation British in Europe to a joint report by the UK government and the EU which outlines the progress made during the first phase of Brexit negotiations. The 17-page document, released last Friday, talks of “agreements in principle” and states the caveat “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, leaving millions of EU and UK citizens uncertain about their futures, some 18 months after the referendum result.

Chair of British in Europe, Jane Golding, said: “This deal is even worse than we expected. After 18 months of wrangling, the UK and EU have sold 4.5 million 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.

The key areas focused on during the first phase of talks were citizens’ rights, the Irish border and a financial settlement. The publication of the report, which announced that “sufficient progress” had been made, now allows them to move on to phase two.

Read full article in the Sur…

EU citizens’ rights groups dismiss May letter as meaningless

EU citizens’ rights groups dismiss May letter as meaningless

Oct 25, 2017 | Articles, News

Campaigners for the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British nationals in Europe have said a letter from Theresa May reassuring them they will be allowed to stay where they are post-Brexit is “meaningless” and a PR exercise aimed at other EU leaders.

Activists lobbying on behalf of the 3.6 million EU citizens in the UK said the letter was welcome but addressed to the wrong people. “We want to stay in this country. So we agree on that. But this letter is for the eyes of the leaders of the Council of Europe. If she really meant this, this letter would have been sent 12 months ago,” said Nicolas Hatton, the co-founder of the3million group.

He said EU leaders had been happy to meet them, but all requests for meetings with May or the Brexit secretary, David Davis, had been rebuffed. They were meeting the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, again in November, and if May was really committed to their plight then she would meet them too, he said.

British nationals in Europe also expressed scepticism. “It is hard not to take a cynical view [of this letter], especially in view of the timing. I still feel we are the human shields,” said Debra Williams, a Briton living in the Netherlands who runs Brexpats: Hear our Voice.

She called on May to ringfence talks on their rights to ensure Britons in Europe are not deemed unlawful residents in 2019 if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal.

“I wrote to the Department for Exiting the EU regarding this and I have had four separate replies including a letter from 10 Downing Street. All ignored this question. Yes, we are mightily fed up,” Wilson said.

Hatton said May’s claim that Britain was within touching distance of a deal was hard to reconcile with his group’s view that negotiators were “barely out of the starting blocks”, with fundamental differences of opinion remaining on oversight by the European court of justice and a new “settled status” immigration category that campaigners say amounts to a diminution of existing rights.

Read full article from The Guardian…

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