UK | May to outline post-Brexit citizens’ rights plan at summit

Theresa May

Prime Minister Theresa May’s first European Union summit since her disastrous election could mark the scene of the first big row of the Brexit negotiations as she outlines how the U.K. proposes to treat the bloc’s citizens after it leaves.

May will run her fellow leaders through the principles of her approach toward EU nationals over dinner in Brussels yesterday before publishing a detailed plan on Monday. While this week’s opening round of Brexit negotiations was considered by the two sides to be generally constructive, diplomats said May’s plan for expats may lay bare the divisions between them.

Citizens’ rights have “been an important issue; we’ve wanted it to be one of the early issues that was considered in the negotiations. That is now the case, that work is starting,” May told reporters as she entered the summit, sidestepping the question of whether she would offer to compromise.

The U.K.’s stance on the rights of an estimated 4.5 million European and British nationals living in each others’ countries is expected to fall short of the EU’s expectations, officials in Brussels said. Failure to find common ground quickly would jeopardize Britain’s ability to strike a Brexit deal by the time it leaves the bloc in March 2019 and would likely at the very least delay when EU governments would be willing to discuss the trade accord May wants. 

While both U.K. and EU officials say they want to end the uncertainty for the millions of people involved, there are obstacles. They include what the rights are, which citizens get to enjoy them and whether Europe’s top court will have the power to enforce them. May must find a middle way between satisfying EU governments without running into opposition from euroskeptics at home.

“It’s an early test,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London. “If we can’t get a sellable deal on this issue, which is less problematic than others, then we might be in trouble.”

May on Wednesday unveiled a two-year program of government that contained eight new laws to help the U.K. unravel itself from EU membership after 44 years. In the Belgian capital she will face the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel having lost the confidence of her Conservative Party after failing to win the popular mandate for the hard Brexit she promised.

The prime minister needs to mend fences after claiming EU officials were trying to sabotage her election campaign. In an effort to show Britain is still working with its continental partners, she’ll pledge assistance with discouraging African refugees from attempting to get to Europe, trying to persuade them to turn back during the journey.

While she’ll attend discussions on topics including counter-terrorism, defense cooperation and migration at the two-day summit, she will be asked to leave immediately after she’s addressed leaders on Brexit at the end of the dinner. She won’t receive any feedback and will be warned that any attempt to negotiate on the U.K.’s withdrawal will be given short shrift and could undermine the goodwill built up by officials this week, diplomats said.

“It’s important for the U.K. just to inform where they stand, what kind of relationship they want,” Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters in Brussels yesterday. “Then it’s up to both of us – the U.K. and European Union – to deliver a pragmatic result.”

Once May leaves, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, will give his assessment of the start of talks, and the 27 leaders will discuss their next steps.

The EU is demanding that European nationals who move to Britain before it leaves the bloc keep the same rights as they currently have throughout the continent. This could give them higher protection than those enjoyed by British citizens, something that the U.K. is likely to say is unacceptable, EU officials said.

Central to this is the right to bring a non-EU spouse to the U.K., which, when Home Secretary, May made more difficult for Britons. European citizens face far fewer hurdles and the EU is demanding that this continues.

“I am not going to say we are going to make concessions,” Barnier said Tuesday. “I have a mandate to defend the EU, which the U.K. has decided to leave.”

Then there is the matter of whether the European Court of Justice should have a role if disputes emerge over how citizens are being treated after Brexit. May has identified ending the court’s say in British law among her Brexit red lines.

The EU also wants the rights to apply to people who may not have the paperwork to prove they have been residents and to make March 2019 the cut-off date for people to claim the privileges.

While officials welcomed the calm start to negotiations on Monday, EU diplomats are expressing pessimism that the U.K. will agree a deal before it leaves the bloc. One senior official close to the talks predicted the collapse of negotiations at some point because of what he described as the U.K.’s incapacity to be realistic. Ian Wishart & Robert Hutton, Bloomberg

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