Teams working on future rights of EU citizens in UK and Britons in Europe are still to resolve 22 of 44 issues under discussion.
The EU and UK Brexit teams working on the future rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons in Europe have failed to reach agreement on 22 of the 44 issues under negotiation, a joint working paper has revealed.
A detailed colour-coded document reveals there is agreement on 22 “green areas” but fundamental disagreements on 14 “red” issues and a further eight “amber” areas that need further clarification.
Among the red-light issues in the document, which is dated 19 June, is the UK’s requirement for “self-sufficient” citizens such as stay-at-home parents and students to have private health insurance or comprehensive sickness insurance (CSI).
Theresa May said this would no longer be required in her official proposal to the EU in June, but it remains sticking point, according to the working paper.
“Some areas marked green, eg CSI … or freedom of movement for Brits in the EU are puzzling. Is this a mistake, an oversight?” asked Anne-Laure Donskoy, chair of the 3million group campaigning for the rights to EU citizens in the UK.
Also baffling for the3million, she said, was the EU’s apparent U-turn on its offer in May to allow Britons in Europe the freedom to move around Europe enabling them to work, see clients or travel freely.
On freedom of movement, the document says the EU is proposing that EU nationals “only have protected rights in the state(s) in which they have residence rights on exit day”, but no rights in any other EU country, as laid out in the EU’s negotiating guidelines.
This caused outrage on Wednesday when first briefed out by Brussels and the confirmation in the working document will heighten the fears of Britons in Europe that this will curtail their ability to go to conferences, visit clients or commute to work in another EU country.
“I think we need to see how this will develop with the next two or three rounds of talks when we will have a better idea,” Donskoy said.
Areas of agreement include the conditions by which all EU citizens can acquire permanent residency and free or low-cost documentation for new residency status, but there is serious disagreement on the way in which permanent residency is granted. The EU says citizens shall be considered legally resident even if they don’t have a permanent residency document, while the UK says it will require the tens of thousands who applied recently for permanent residency documents to re-register.
They are also still in disagreement on “posted workers”, those workers who are moved by the employer or voluntarily to another EU country on a temporary basis.
The two sides appear closer to agreement on commuters or short-term contractors who are tax-resident in one country and earn their living in another. This would affect about 45,000 British workers but also 90,000 EU citizens who travel to Britain for work on short-term contracts, including seasonal workers who work on British farms during the harvest.
“The UK will consider offering reciprocal agreements,” says the working paper.
The biggest point of difference is the UK’s insistence that the European court of justice should not be involved in disputes that may arise post Brexit.
Britons in Europe applauded the EU’s stance on the ECJ. “We were relieved to see that the EU are sticking to their guns with regard to the ECJ and hope that Theresa May can be persuaded to budge from her current position,” said Sue Wilson, the chair of the Bremain in Spain group.
If the ECJ were removed, she asked, “what would stop some future UK government from moving the goalposts and diminishing previously agreed rights?”
