The document drawn up by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee suggests the 1.2 million Brits living across Europe could pay a penalty after UK prime minister Theresa May failed to guarantee reciprocal rights for EU citizens in the UK.
The Brussels report, obtained by British newspaper The Guardian, says it will be down to each member state to decide whether British citizens are allowed to carry on living within their respective borders after 2019.
“The fact that it appears to be particularly difficult for foreign nationals, even if married to UK nationals or born in the UK, to acquire permanent residence status or British nationality may colour member states’ approach to this matter,” said the document.
For her part, Theresa May has insisted that she wants to come to an arrangement as soon as possible after Article 50 is triggered next month but has complained that EU leaders are blocking an immediate deal to reassure people they will not be displaced after Brexit.
The EU report claims that “specific entitlements acquired validly in the past” – such as a pension or ownership of a property – may continue to apply.
However, it goes on to say “it cannot … be considered that a person who is no longer an EU citizen will have unrestricted rights to live, work and study in the EU, or benefit from social security arrangements such as reciprocal healthcare entitlements, unless specific provisions are made.”
In addition, the committee maintains it will be “difficult if not impossible” to arrange a transitional deal within the next two years to cushion the UK in its withdrawal from the EU.
In a foreword to the report, Pavel Svoboda, the Czech chairman of the committee, writes: “One important preliminary question affecting all policy areas is the extent to which transitional arrangements could be envisaged legally.
“It would seem to us that such arrangements could only be adopted by international agreement or a protocol to the treaties, which would require the unanimous agreement of the member states and ratification in accordance with their national constitutional tradition.
“It would seem difficult, if not impossible, to reach such an agreement before the end of the period provided for in Article 50.”
Spain needs expats
Andrea Speed, a financial adviser in Spain, home to Europe’s largest British expat community, thinks it’s unlikely the Spanish government will kick out the Brits.
“The likelihood is that Spain will not want to lose the expats. We bring in too much money,” she told International Adviser.
Speed, whose firm Speed Financial Solutions provides advice to British expats living on the Costa Del Sol, added the most pressing concern for her clients is the UK securing reciprocal healthcare rights.
Citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, can get public healthcare in all EEA states, which is then claimed back from the government of their home country.
“The ability to access the health system because we’re part of the EU, that’s going to disappear unless there’s an agreement put in place,” she said.
