‘Give EU families in the UK open-ended right to stay’

EUROPEAN Union bureaucrats are demanding that “current and future family members” of European citizens in the UK should have an open-ended right to settle in this country after Brexit.

They also want Britain to continue to agree to pay the pension costs of Brussels officials after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

The demands are made in two negotiating papers which have been published by the EU ahead of formal Brexit talks starting on June 19, just 11 days after next Thursday’s General Election.

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, will today condemn them as “aggressive” and stress that she is best placed to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU.

The document, titled “Essential Principles on Citizens’ Rights” says that “family members… will join the holder of the right at any point after the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement”.

It adds that this will apply to “current and future family members”, which makes the commitment potentially open-ended for decades.

EU nationals will also receive an identity document giving them, their spouses and children the right to remain in the UK.

Another document, entitled “Essential Principles on Financial Settlement”, sets out the scale of the bill the EU wants Britain to pay to leave it.

It lists 74 different EU bodies which it wants Britain to pay its share of funding, including the European Commission, the European Standards Agency and the EU Council.

The bill should also take into “pensions and other employee benefits” of staff at the EU institutions.

Mrs May will use the demands to try to convince voters that she is better placed than Jeremy Corbyn to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU.