EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit will be allowed to have family members move and join them, a leaked document reveals today.
Britain will also accept EU judges’ rulings on such rights, according to a draft European Parliament resolution, for an as yet unspecified period.
The document also supports Theresa May’s call for an agreement from Brussels that British citizens in the EU will be able to live freely in any member state after Brexit.
But it contains no mention of how long EU citizens living in Britain might have any recourse to the European Court of Justice – a continuing sticking point in the Brexit talks.
Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has been a major player in the Brexit talks, representing the European Parliament and warning the deal must be acceptable to MEPs before it agreed
Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has been a major player in the Brexit talks, representing the European Parliament and warning the deal must be acceptable to MEPs before it agreed.
The draft resolution was prepared on the basis of an agreement Theresa May was about to sign on Monday before objections. A final version of it could be voted by MEPs as soon as next week.
The draft, revealed by the Reuters news wire, has since gone back into negotiations after Mrs May’s DUP allies rejected working on the Irish border.
It goes into more detail on citizens’ rights, notably on issues where London had been resisting MEPs’ demands.
These included that ‘core family members and persons in a durable relationship currently residing outside (Britain) shall be protected by the Withdrawal Agreement and that this is also the case for children born in the future and outside (Britain)’.
Britain, which does not grant its own citizens automatic rights to bring in foreign spouses, had sought to apply that to EU citizens after Brexit and also wanted to deny rights to British residence to any children born abroad after Brexit.
Britain will also accept EU judges’ rulings on such rights, according to a draft European Parliament resolution, for an as yet unspecified period.
Britain has also, according to the draft, accepted that EU citizens can ‘export all exportable benefits’ as defined by EU legislation after the country leaves the European Union.
And it has ‘accepted the competence of the (ECJ) in relation to the interpretation of the Withdrawal Treaty’.
‘Citizens’ rights will be guaranteed through a declaratory, light touch, proportionate procedure, consisting of a single form per family,’ the resolution stated.
The measure appears to be a compromise over UK plans to charge around £70 per head for settled status – equivalent to getting a Birtish passport.
MEPs are still pressing for the procedure to be free.
The draft resolution was prepared on the basis of an agreement Theresa May was about to sign on Monday before objections