May's ‘fair and serious offer' on the rights of EU citizens is branded ‘not sufficient' at summit

MICHAEL SETTLE

Theresa May’s offer failed to impress the EU President.

At a press conference in the Belgian capital, Mrs May was confronted with Mr Osborne's claim and refused to give an outright denial, saying: “That's certainly not my recollection.”

Under the UK proposals, which Mrs May outlined to her fellow leaders over dinner on Thursday, all EU nationals who have been in the UK for five years would be entitled to “settled status”, granting them the same rights as their British neighbours to healthcare, education, welfare benefits and pensions.

Those with a shorter period of residency would be able to stay on to reach the five-year threshold and others arriving after a yet-to-be-defined cut-off date would have a “grace period” to

regularise their status. The two-day summit ended with battle-lines being drawn over the key questions of jurisdiction and the cut-off date for residency rights.

Mr Juncker argued that it was “inconceivable” that the European Court of Justice would have no judicial role in enforcing EU nationals' rights under any future arrangements.

But Mrs May set her face firmly against the European court's involvement while suggesting expats' rights could be protected by international treaty and insisted several leaders, including Poland's Beate Szydlo, had “reacted positively” to her proposals.

Mr Tusk made clear that the UK offer would be subjected to line-by-line analysis by the Brexit negotiation team led by Michel Barnier following its publication on Monday.

He added: “My first impression is that the UK offer is below our expectations and risks worsening the situation of citizens.”

Speaking alongside France's Emmanuel Macron in a rare joint press conference which was a mark of both sides' determination to show Paris and Berlin driving the EU, Mrs Merkel described the May plan as a “good beginning”, but added that there was “a long way to go yet”.

“That was a good beginning but – and I'm trying to word this very carefully– it was not a breakthrough,” she said.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon criticised the year of uncertainty since the referendum that has hung over EU citizens in the UK as “disgraceful” and said she welcomed in principle Mrs May's proposals but stressed the “devil will be in the detail”.

Speaking at the Royal Highland Show, the First Minister said: “The outcome of the election UK-wide opens possibilities that perhaps we thought were closed to us.

“There is, in particular, a possibility now of building a consensus across the UK against that hard Brexit that was being pursued previously.”