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May tries to reassure EU citizens living in Britain
LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May tried Monday to reassure European Union citizens living in Britain that their lives and those of their family will not be disrupted when Britain leaves the EU in 2019.
She told Parliament that steps will be taken to make sure the split with the EU is handled with care in regard to the estimated 3 million EU citizens living inside Britain. She said Britain wants them to stay after Brexit.
“No families will be split up,” she said, adding that family dependents who move to Britain to join an EU citizen would be able to apply for “settled” status after five years.
That will be the term used for EU citizens who meet the five-year rule. May says they will be entitled to full U.K. health and pension benefits.
“After the U.K. has left the European Union, EU citizens with settled status will be able to bring family members from overseas on the same terms as British nationals,” she said.
She said her plans mean that no one from the EU who is now in Britain lawfully will be made to leave when Brexit happens.
The prime minister said this offer will be dependent on British citizens in the 27 other EU countries receiving the same treatment from those countries.
“Our offer will give those 3 million EU citizens in the U.K. certainty about the future of their lives, and a reciprocal agreement will provide the same certainty for the more than 1 million citizens living in the European Union,” she said.
May was elaborating on proposals made last week during a summit of EU leaders. She said she wants to resolve the issue early in the Brexit negotiations to ease anxiety for EU citizens living in Britain.
EU officials had said the proposals were a reasonable first step but fell short of expectations.
After Monday’s announcement, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, tweeted that there was still “more ambition, clarity and guarantees needed.”
Also on Monday, May forged a deal with a Northern Ireland party that should give her struggling minority government enough votes to get her agenda endorsed, but at a high cost: more than 1 billion pounds in new funds for Northern Ireland and resentment from Britain’s other regions.
The deal May struck with the Democratic Unionist Party was needed because of her Conservative Party’s dismal performance in a June 8 election. The massive injection of funds her government pledged in exchange angered the leaders of Scotland and Wales, as well as Northern Ireland’s other parties.
The package includes $1.27 billion of new funding and $638 million of previously announced funds to help Northern Ireland develop its infrastructure, health services and schools.
It should allow May to win backing in coming days for the Brexit-dominated agenda announced in the Queen’s Speech that marked the opening of a new Parliament last week.
Ian Blackford, a leader of the Scottish National Party, said his party would do everything possible to make sure Scotland gets “its fair share” under a formula that prescribes how U.K. government funds are shared by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“After weeks of secret backroom negotiations, the Tories have now signed a grubby deal with the DUP,” Blackford said. “For years, the Tories have been cutting budgets and services, but suddenly they have found a magic money tree to help them stay in power.”
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones tweeted that the deal “flies in the face of the commitment to build a more united country.”
The prime minister had enjoyed a clear majority in Parliament until she called a snap election in a bid to secure more Conservative seats. Instead, many voters turned to the Labour Party, costing May her majority and forcing her to seek a partner.