Javid demands EU acts on UK citizens’ rights
Sajid Javid will today announce details of the UK’S citizenship scheme for EU nationals despite concerns that European governments are not doing enough to protect the rights of British expatriates. The Home Secretary will warn EU member states that their failure to draw up protections for British nationals is “not good enough” and called on the European Parliament and European Commission to exert more pressure on national governments.
SAJID JAVID will today announce details of the UK’S citizenship scheme for EU nationals, despite raising concerns that not enough is being done to protect the rights of British expats abroad.
The Home Secretary will warn EU member states their failure to draw up protections for UK nationals is “not good enough” and call for urgent clarification about their rights after Brexit.
In highly critical remarks, Mr Javid will tell European states: “I am concerned that I have not seen any similar plans on how EU member states are going to support British nationals in their countries. This is not good enough and I hope both the European Parliament and Commission will exert more pressure for them to do this as soon as possible.”
He will today set out how the UK’S scheme for EU nationals will work, including an app and online system to help people apply for settled status, which is expected to cost around £75.
In a meeting with Mr Javid earlier this week, Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, admitted that the 27 member states had not done enough to set out how a new system would work for British expats.
Most states have yet to set out how Britons currently living in their country will be able to apply to continue to do so, despite the UK already detailing plans to grant settled status to any EU national who has been in Britain for five or more years.
The new UK system will be phased in later this year and the Home Secretary will set out how it is going to work to MPS in Parliament today.
It came as Mr Verhofstadt said Theresa May’s proposals for a temporary customs “backstop” to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland were “not acceptable” and could not be time-limited. He dismissed claims that any continued alignment with the European Union – in the event that a solution cannot be reached – would end in 2021. While the Prime Minister has insisted that the backstop, which was agreed by the UK and EU last year, would be timelimited, Mr Verhofstadt said that it was not possible to transition between three different customs arrangements in such a short space of time.
He suggested that in the event that the backstop was implemented, it would be a “permanent system” that would only be altered over time and when a suitable alternative had been agreed.
The former Belgian prime minister told the Commons Brexit committee: “I have never seen a backstop that is used for one year and then it disappears. No, a backstop is a fallback position that you have in your pocket and you hope that you have never to use it. That is a backstop, in my opinion. That (temporary backstop) was not in the proposal of the UK Government.”
He was equally dismissive of a potential customs partnership, which is believed to be Mrs May’s preferred solution, and would see the UK collect tariffs on EU goods for the bloc.
The proposals have been rejected by several Cabinet ministers, who believe that it would be too complex, and who instead favour a technological solution.
When asked whether a customs partnership would be acceptable to the EU, Mr Verhofstadt said: “No, that’s not possible. We are not going to outsource our competencies and customs arrangement. That is what we have said already, months and months ago.”