Lukewarm response to rights offer

BELGIUM: British Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal to safeguard the residency rights of European Union citizens currently living in the United Kingdom has been met with a tepid reception from EU leaders, who say many issues remain unresolved.

May told EU leaders over dinner at a summit in Brussels yesterday that almost all 3 million EU citizens in the UK would be able to continue living there after Brexit, saying she wanted to offer them as much certainty as possible about their futures.

Citizens’ rights is one of the main issues the EU and the UK need to resolve before trade talks can be broached leading up to Britain’s March 2019 exit from the bloc.

Even though May emphasised that she didn’t want to break up families or deport anyone who currently lives in Britain., EU leaders withheld judgment on the proposal, choosing to wait for the release of the full plan next week.

‘‘The UK’s position represents a fair and serious offer,’’ May said. ‘‘One aimed at giving as much certainty as possible to citizens who have settled in the UK, building careers and lives and contributing so much to our society.’’

While the proposal will go a long way towards meeting what EU leaders wanted for their citizens, they are likely to object to May’s insistence that questions over their rights should be adjudicated in British courts.

Britain is also leaving open the question of the cutoff date from which the rights will no longer apply, saying only that it will be some time between March 29, 2017, when it began the departure process, and the date it will actually leave the EU.

‘‘It’s a first good step, which we appreciate,’’ Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said after the meeting. ‘‘But there are so many details left open, and a lot of citizens of Europe are concerned, and not covered with the proposal of Mrs

"There are so many details left open, and a lot of citizens of Europe are concerned, and not covered." Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern

May, so there is a long, long way for negotiations.’’

The proposal effectively divides EU citizens into three groups:

Those who have been residents in the UK for five years before the cutoff date will be granted ‘‘settled status’’, meaning they will be treated like British citizens on questions of healthcare, education, welfare and pensions.

Those with less than five years’ residence before the cutoff date will be allowed to stay until they have clocked up five years’ residence, and then apply for settled status.

Those who arrive in the UK between the cutoff date and the date the UK leaves the EU will be entitled to a ‘‘grace period’’ of around two years to allow them to apply for legal status to remain. May also promised that the application system for settled status would be streamlined and use digital tools, in a shift away from the lengthy documents the Home Office currently asks applicants to fill out.

While the offer goes further than some on the EU side had expected, particularly in its assurances on benefits and pensions, it is still short of what the bloc has demanded in areas such as the need for their citizens’ rights to be protected in perpetuity by the European Court of Justice, and for the cutoff date to be the day Britain leaves the EU.

‘‘This is a good start, but there are still many, many other questions,’’ German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. – Bloomberg