Yahoo Finance Ditch 'second class citizen' plan or face veto on Brexit deal, Theresa May warned
One of Europe’s top Brexit negotiators has warned that Theresa May must offer EU citizens a better deal or the whole process could flounder.
Writing in the Guardian, MEP and chair of the European parliament’s Brexit steering group, Guy Verhofstadt, described May’s pledge to grant European nationals living in the UK ‘third country’ status as a “damp squib” – with even fewer rights than promised under the Vote Leave manifesto.
Her proposal, he argued, would mean EU citizens getting far poorer deal than Britons living in the EU – and that would see MEPs reject the plan.
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Michel Barnier, the EU’s negotiator, has proposed that expat Britons and Europeans retain the same rights and level of protection they currently enjoy under European law.
Verhofstadt said British plans would see Europeans lose their right to vote in local elections, that family members would be subject to minimum income requirements and that it was unclear what the status of post-Brexit babies would be.
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“This carries a real risk of creating second-class citizenship,” he said. “The proposal is even in contradiction with the Vote Leave manifesto, which promised to treat EU citizens ‘no less favourably than they are at present’.”
Verhofstadt called for clarification on the future for students, doctors and those who live in the EU but work in the UK – so-called ‘frontier workers’.
He said it was crucial for the European Court of Justice maintain a key role in overseeing and protecting the rights of EU citizens in a post-Brexit world.
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This is a “red line” area for May’s Brexit vision as she has pledged to pull the UK out of having anything to do with the ECJ.
Verhofstadt said: “The European Union has a common mission to extend, enhance and expand rights, not reduce them. We will never endorse their retroactive removal.
“The European parliament will reserve its right to reject any agreement that treats EU citizens, regardless of their nationality, less favourably than they are at present.”
