Migrant offer aims to kickstart talks

BRITAIN is considering sweetening its offer to Brussels over European citizens’ rights by allowing them to bring non-eu spouses into the country after Brexit, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Whitehall sources said the move, which is being discussed by ministers, could form part of a “generous” package measures that aim to kick-start negotiations in Brussels on Monday.

British officials will meet Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator in Brussels today to thrash out the structure of the talks.

British officials rejected the EU’S position that substantive talks cannot begin until the Government’s position is settled. If talks do begin on Monday, both sides have agreed the first area of focus will be the fate of the three million EU citizens currently living in the UK and the 1.5 million Britons on the Continent.

One possible sweetener being considered by the Government is to allow EU nationals already resident in the UK to keep their rights to bring non-eu spouses into Britain after Brexit, even though UK citizens in Europe do not have those rights. If agreed by ministers, it would represent a notable softening of the UK’S position before the election that EU and UK citizens must enjoy equivalent rights after Brexit.

One source said: “It’s still the overall position that EU citizens in UK will enjoy the same rights as UK citizens, but in some cases… it is possible they will retain extra rights.”

Other proposals including giving nearly a million EU citizens the right to stay even though they have not achieved the five-year residency qualification.