• EU member states must now explain how UK citizens can
register for 'settled' status
• Negotiators urged to agree ongoing free movement rights
for UK citizens in the EU
• Government should issue physical residency documents to
EU citizens with ‘settled status’ in UK
Although the former Brexit Secretary and said in March 2018 that
the chapter of the draft Withdrawal Agreement on citizens’ rights
had been finalised, substantial issues remain unresolved for
British citizens living in the EU and EU citizens living in the
UK.
Today’s Report from the Committee on Exiting the European Union
says that UK citizens living in other EU countries cannot be left
in the dark as to how to secure their rights after Brexit. The
EU’s position on EU citizens in the UK has been to insist on no
diminution of their rights, but this has to work both ways.
Today’s Report - The progress of the UK’s negotiations
on EU withdrawal: the rights of UK and EU citizens -
calls for urgent clarification from the EU27 on the preparations
that they are making to regularise the status of UK citizens in
each Member State.
Continued rights of free movement, other associated rights,
provisions for registration of UK citizens, recognition of
professional qualifications, voting rights and whether UK
citizens can continue with or apply for dual nationality are all
other causes for concern. The Committee calls in particular for
the Government to press for an agreement on ongoing free movement
within the EU27 for UK citizens currently resident in the EU.
The UK Government has said it wants EU citizens to stay in the UK
and their right to remain will come through the Home Secretary’s
scheme of “settled status”. However, the digital application
process proposed by the Home Office risks creating barriers for
applicants and confusion among those required to make the checks,
including potential landlords and employers.
The timetable and deadlines for the roll-out of this scheme –
expected to process three million applications - are challenging
and ensuring its success will require a considerable public
information programme. Once applications are processed, evidence
to the inquiry led the Committee to recommend that a physical
document such as a residency card should be issued, rather than
relying on a digital format, as this would provide more
reassurance and familiarity and could be more readily shown to
employers and potential landlords.
The Committee calls for the process for EU citizens in the UK to
get settled status to be cost-free provided agreement is secured
that UK citizens in the EU will not incur a charge to do the
same. For the Irish in Britain, the Government should set out
detailed guidance to clarify why they might choose to apply for
Settled Status and any applications should be free.
The UK Government should also explain clearly what will happen to
EU citizens who fail to apply for settled status in the UK after
the transition and grace periods end.
In the event of ‘no deal’, the Committee calls on the UK and the
individual Member States to make public statements to assure all
EU and UK citizens living on their territory that they will
safeguard their rights.
The Chair of the Committee, MP, commented:
“Citizens’ Rights was one area of the Brexit negotiations marked
as green in the March draft of the Withdrawal Agreement which
implied that it was all sorted. But the evidence we have
heard suggests it is far from being finalised.
“In evidence to our inquiry, we heard the hopes and fears of UK
citizens in the EU as well as of EU citizens resident here in the
UK. These are people who have made their lives in the EU in good
faith or came to live and work in the UK, paying taxes, raising
families and putting down roots. The rights of UK citizens living
in the EU27 and of EU nationals in the UK should be based on full
reciprocity, but as things stand, both groups are likely to lose
some of the rights they had previously. That's not fair and it's
why we want to see further progress quickly.
“And whatever happens with the negotiations, we urge all
Governments to make it clear to all EU citizens who have made
somewhere else their home, that they can stay."
