On May 29th the European Commission has laid out the EU’s position on citizens’ rights on both sides of the channel. A proposal that would ensure that both British in Europe and the 3 million EU nationals in the UK can continue their lives as if Brexit had not happened. In line with what Vote Leave promised pre referendum.
On June 26th, almost a month after the EU offer, the UK government presented their own offer. The offer did not directly respond to the EU offer but set out a completely different approach to the future status (pdf) of EU nationals in the UK. In contrast to the EU, the UK is intending to create a new ‘settled status’ within UK immigration law. Though it is almost impossible to compare the two proposals due to the different approach they have taken it was clear that the UK offered to maintain far less rights and very little protection against future changes.
Besides the issue of international protection to ensure rights are for life one of the issues the UK proposal raised was that those who acquired permanent residence certification (PR card) would have to reapply for the new status as permanent residence status would become redundant. Thousands of people have paid out £65, filled in 85 page application form and provided several kilos of supporting documentation in the wake of the referendum result last year. Under the UK proposal they would now have to reapply.
This has been greeted with disapproval by the EU negotiators and is one of the 14 areas still marked as red/unresolved on the joint technical notes published by the UK government and the EU. Despite negotiations on citizens’ rights still in the early phases the Home Office have begun to communicate as if the UK proposal is a done deal. 3 days after the UK ‘serious and fair’ offer, two weeks before the first round of negotiations, this tweet appeared on the Home Office account:
EU citizens living in the UK - find out how #Brexit will affect you: https://t.co/iRuESfHNH1 #citizensrights pic.twitter.com/K1tvRR4p1w— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) June 29, 2017
“EU citizens living in the UK - find out how #Brexit will affect you:” – the Home Office nicely slipped the word ‘will’ in there. Not ‘might’, not ‘could’, not ‘may’ but ‘will’. As the two rounds of negotiations have shown there are many areas where the EU and UK are not seeing eye-to-eye regarding the rights of EU nationals in the UK and British nationals in the EU. Not in the eyes of the Home Office though – the UK offer is a fait accompli, a done deal.
It could be put down to poor choice of words of course. At least that is the impression I had until I found this on the official Permanent Residence card application website:
PR card not valid after UK leaves the EU? New scheme to apply? It is quite clear from the joint technical notes that this issue has not been resolved. Actually it is marked as red – disagreement.
The questions therfore is why is the Home Office communicating that this is what will happen? It is understandable that the Home Office has not got the capacity to process permanent residence applications, with estimates of 140 years to process all 3.2 million EU nationals being talked about, but to state that the new process and new legal status will apply as matter of fact on Home Office website is unacceptable.
The attitude of the UK Government and Home Office towards the negotiations in general and towards the rights of the 3.2 million EU nationals specifically is misleading, mendacious and bitterly disappointing. After 13 months in limbo many of the EU nationals in the UK are feeling treated like fools again. Not very helpful to rebuild the trust destroyed since the referendum.
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