The European Parliament has received two separate petitions, both appealing for the “cloud of uncertainty” hanging over millions of citizens, by the UK’s decision to quit the EU, to be lifted.
On Wednesday, the parliament’s petitions committee heard evidence from two petitioners, both British, who appealed to MEPs to help protect the rights of citizens on both sides of the Channel when the UK withdraws from the EU.
One petitioner was Dr Kristina Howells, an English teacher and opera singer originally from Bedfordshire who now lives in Calais in France, a country which has become home to 500,000 expat Brits.
She said “acute uncertainty” had resulted from the Brexit referendum and the response from the UK side was “totally unpredictable.”
She added, “Now, while things are so fluid, is the key moment for the rights of expats both living in the UK and in the EU27 to be brought into the open, debated and settled.”
The situation for UK expats in Spain was particularly urgent, she said, because they had been told to renounce their British nationality if they want to take out Spanish citizenship.
"It has been estimated that the return of expats to the UK because they can no longer afford healthcare in their present countries of residence post-Brexit will cost the already struggling NHS an extra €500m per year”
Howells, president of the British Association cote D’Opale which represents the rights of Britons in northern France, said that cases of abuse directed at British expats had increased since the referendum.
She said, “I have been personally subjected to this with comments like ‘are you still here Brexit? Why haven’t you gone home?’ “This is just one example of many that I could cite,” she said.
She told the committee, “The difficulties of expats in other EU states have simply not been thought through, for example, on healthcare. It has been estimated that the return of expats to the UK because they can no longer afford healthcare in their present countries of residence post-Brexit will cost the already struggling NHS an extra €500m per year.”
She added, “If these matters are not taken into account, those of us who have made our home in the EU will simply become foreigners.”
“To increase the despair and desperation some feel, British expats seeking citizenship or permanent right of residence in their host countries have been baffled by apparent ignorance among officials and by the sheer complexities of the procedures.”
A second petition, containing 161 names, was submitted to the same meeting by Jonathan Gutteridge, from Nottingham in England, who called for public hearings all over Europe to “enable citizens to share evidence of how they will be affected.”
He said, “I am asking for clarity over the legal process.”
The committee was told that citizens’ rights are the protections offered to all EU citizens, including free movement and residence, equal treatment and a wide range of other rights under EU law regarding work, education, social security and health.
They are held by 3.5 million citizens from other member states in the UK and 1.2 million British nationals on the continent, and are a key part of the article 50 negotiations that are taking Britain out of Europe.
For the EU, citizens’ rights are “the first priority” of the article 50 divorce talks. “We need real guarantees for our people who live, work and study in the UK, and the same goes for Brits,” the European council’s president, Donald Tusk has said.
The UK government likewise stressed in its Brexit white paper that it wants to “give people the certainty they want ... at the earliest opportunity. It is the right and fair thing to do”.
The issue has already generated ill feeling. Claims by British Prime Minister Theresa May that she tried to reach an early deal on the issue but was rebuffed by the EU’s member states drew a sharp reminder from Brussels that the topic could not be addressed outside the formal divorce talks.
After a succession of high-profile cases involving residents or their children being denied permanent residency, the British government has also been accused by Brussels of failing to treat EU nationals fairly and humanely.
In the opening session of the article 50 talks on Monday the two sides confirmed they would prioritise the question of citizens’ rights, on which Brexit secretary David Davis said there was “much common ground”
It was announced that May would travel to Brussels today to unveil the terms of a new British offer to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in Britain. The full terms of the offer will be published in a paper on 26 June.