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Opinion: Brexit makes cooperation in the North Sea Region more important than ever

The North Sea region's maritime economy employs more than 850,000 people, but in order for Brexit to cause as little damage to it as possible cooperation must be strengthened, the North Sea Commission writes.

Published: 23 January 2018 06:59 CET

Opinion: Brexit makes cooperation in the North Sea Region more important than ever

File photo of a ferry crossing the North Sea. Photo: Owen Humphreys/AP

The North Sea Region has a long history of close relations in trade and personal exchange. Thanks to membership of European Union and the EEA agreement including Norway, these relations are stronger now than ever.

We respect the decision by the British people to leave the European Union. However, the United Kingdom and the European Union must ensure in the upcoming negotiations that this decision will cause as little harm as possible to the North Sea Region and to the North Sea itself. Strong North Sea relations are more important than ever, and Brexit is a reason to increase cooperation.

The North Sea is one of the busiest sea basins in the world. Its shipping lanes are a crucial part of Europe's logistics, and its ports handle 57 per cent of EU's external trade. Its maritime economy employs more than 850,000 people. It has some of Europe’s best fishing waters. It delivers 80 per cent of EU’s marine renewable energy, and has great capacity for more. North Sea oil and gas still play a significant role in European and global energy production. The coastline is an important recreation area, yet the shallow waters and the coasts are vulnerable to oil spills, plastics and other pollution. Strong multi-level cooperation is needed in all these areas.

From March 2019, the external border of EU will cut right through this prosperous and tightly connected region. So far, Brexit negotiations have only concentrated on certain aspects of the divorce, but they will soon concern the future relations between the UK and the EU. The UK will also leave the European Economic Area (EEA), and will have to renegotiate its relationship with Norway.

The CPMR North Sea Commission represents regions, provinces, countries and councils around the North Sea. Thirty-three regions from the EU member states (including the UK) and Norway are members. We have been working since 1989 to create partnerships between our members and to promote the interests of the North Sea Region in Europe, specifically in the fields of marine resources, accessibility and clean transport, energy/climate change and prosperous and sustainable communities.

A number of concerns arise from our initial analysis of Brexit. A “hard” Brexit will cause several barriers to trade, in particular if no deal is reached on a future free trade agreement. Supply chains will be broken. Small and medium-sized companies in our regions, without experience of trade outside the EU, will suffer. The damaging effects of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade will have a particularly harsh impact on certain regions and sectors. There will be economic consequences for all of us.

In the UK, new restrictions on migration may lead to lack of skills in important sectors. The UK is one of the most active partners in EU’s research programme, and the strong scientific links across the North Sea will suffer if the UK leaves the programme. Interreg North Sea and other European cooperation programmes provide valuable support to regional development and exchange in the North Sea area.

The regional authorities are committed to continued exchange and cooperation. We hope to see the same commitment from the national and European levels. We call for future frameworks between the UK and the EU to provide scope for direct engagement between local authorities in the UK and regions in the EU27. We call for continued UK participation in some of the most important EU programmes. We call for stronger cooperation between the EU, national, regional and local authorities to balance the many interests in the North Sea.

As regional representatives we are eager to discuss how we can maintain and develop close transnational and multi-level relationships in the North Sea region in the Brexit era.

The Executive Committee of the CPMR North Sea Commission

Kerstin Brunnström, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden, President

John Lamb, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, England, Vice President

Andreas Lervik, Østfold County Council, Norway, Vice President

Peter Argyle, Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland

Marianne Chesak, Rogaland County Council, Norway

Preben Friis-Hauge, Region South Denmark, Denmark

Antje Grotheer, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Germany

Nienke Homan, Province of Groningen, the Netherlands

Dag Hultefors, Region Halland, Sweden

This is an opinion piece written by the CPMR North Sea Commission. It was originally published in Swedish by Dagens Nyheter.

'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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