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Italy guarantees citizens’ rights for Brits after Brexit

"Tears of joy and bottles of prosecco" as Brits living in Italy hear the news that their rights will be protected post-Brexit by the Italian government.

Published: 21 December 2018 11:56 CET

Italy guarantees citizens’ rights for Brits after Brexit

The British in Italy committee met with government officials in Rome yesterday. Photo: British in Italy

Brits living in Italy are celebrating after the Italian government gave them “the best possible Christmas present”, said campaigners from expat group British in Italy.

Italian government officials have confirmed that they are working on plans to secure the rights of the tens of thousands of British citizens living here after Brexit.

Deal or no deal, officials at Palazzo Chigi in Rome said Brits in Italy will not be waking up on March 30^th 2019 as irregolari, with no right to live and work in their adopted home country; a possibility that has been fuelling anxiety among the country’s British residents ever since the referendum vote.

High-level officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with and confirmed to the committee of British in Italy that all British nationals legally resident in Italy on 29th March 2019 will continue to be legally resident and will keep their existing rights to work, the group stated in a press release this morning.

“We are absolutely delighted with this wonderful news for British citizens in Italy,” Anne Parry of British in Italy told The Local.

'”So many people have been so worried about what is going to happen on March 30th and now we can all relax and enjoy the Christmas break,” she said.

“So many people have sent messages of thanks and support, often sharing their tears of joy and photos of bottles of Prosecco, so we are very relieved and happy today. “

“We feel we are truly welcome in Italy and part of the great European community.'

A video posted by the group yesterday announcing the news has already been viewed 12,000 times on Facebook and Youtube

“This is an indication of the anxiety people have been facing,” said Parry.

“This makes Italy “the first EU27 country to publicly declare their plans for citizens’ rights post-Brexit, and to provide the reassurance we have been awaiting so long,” it said.

Italian officials have confirmed that contingency planning for the event of a no-deal Brexit is “well advanced,” the group said.

“Whilst many of our existing EU rights were provided for under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, until now we were facing the prospect of becoming ‘irregolari’ with no rights to reside, to employment, to healthcare, to social security or family reunion should there be No Deal, the so-called ‘Hard Brexit’.” British in Italy wrote.

Many had been hoping for the EU to protect British ctizens' rights. But it was made clear yesterday that this wasn’t going to happen, after the European Commission advised that this should be dealt with by individual member states – and asked them to be “generous”.

The EU Commission’s paper on Contingency Planning, published on December 19th, confirmed that without legislation at individual state level, British citizens living in Europe would become illegal or irregular migrants on 29th March 2019.

Many British residents in Italy and elsewhere in Europe have spoken of their anger and frustration at being abandoned by both the UK government and the EU.

1/ Dear @EU_Commission, your refusal to ring-fence the #citizensrights already agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement is undermining the principle of Freedom of Movement. No one can ever fully rely on FoM again to build their lives in any of the remaining EU27 states #RescueOurRights https://t.co/PqbL51m6kn

— the3million (@The3Million) December 20, 2018

Rome is now busy preparing legislation that will in effect by 29th March 2019, protecting the rights of all those British nationals legally resident in Italy on that date.

Palazzo Chigi released its own statement today on Italy's preparations for no-deal Brexit, which says it's working to guarantee the rights of Italian citizens in the Uk, as well as British citizens in Italy.

British in Italy members stressed that all British citizens living in Italy must obtain legal residency status by that date in order to ensure their rights are protected by the Italian government.

There are some 26,000 registered Brits living in Italy, but as many are not legally registered, some estimates say the true figure could be as high as 65,000

READ ALSO:

INTERVIEW: 'A lot of people think Brexit is done, but it's not for Brits in Europe'

In the early days of 2021, after the United Kingdom had left the EU and completed the final stage of Brexit, many British citizens returned to their home countries in Europe only to face a grilling at the border.

Though the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) technically guaranteed their right to live and work in the countries they’d settled in before Brexit, there was widespread confusion about these fundamental rights and many were treated like new arrivals.

Over time, the chaos at the airports subsided as border officials and airlines were given clearer guidance on the treatment of Brits. But three years later, a number of Brits who live on the continent still face problems when it comes to proving their post-Brexit rights.

This was the reason campaign group British in Europe decided to set up their new EU-funded ICE project. Starting this year in March, it aims to build valuable connections between UK citizens abroad and mentor the next generation of civil rights advocates around the continent. The acronym stands for ‘Inform, Empower, Connect’ and the project’s organisers describe it as “the first project of its kind”.

“It’s a completely innovative project – especially the fact that it’s across so many countries,” Jane Golding, chair of British in Europe and one of the project’s founders, told The Local.

Bringing together groups from 11 EU member states, the project aims to train up volunteers to understand both the Withdrawal Agreement and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as learning skills like advocacy and communication, using real-life civil rights cases that are referred to British in Europe.

“The ultimate goal is to amplify the messages across the wider group,” said Golding. “You start with the volunteers, they go back to their groups, then the people that we train, they go back and train people. Then they pass on that knowledge to the wider groups, on their Facebook accounts and through social media, and hopefully it all snowballs, not just in their countries but across the EU.”

‘Far-reaching repercussions’

So many years after Brexit, it’s hard to believe that there’s still a need for a project like ICE that empowers Brits to protect their rights. Indeed, the future of groups like British in Europe and regional groups like British in Germany and British in Spain felt uncertain just a year or two ago.

But Golding says there are still serious issues cropping up for Brits in several countries around Europe – they just have a different quality to the problems that arose at the start.

“In some ways it’s needed even more because as we predicted right at the beginning, at the first stage of implementation, you’ve got the more routine cases,” she explained.

“What we’re seeing now is not as many cases, but when the cases come up, they’re complex. They can have such far-reaching repercussions on people’s lives. And of course, memories start to fade. A lot of people think Brexit is already done, but it’s not.”

Volunteers in British in Europe ICE project

The volunteers of the British in Europe ICE project pose for a photo at the kick-off meeting in Brussels on May 21st, 2024. Photo courtesy of Jane Golding

Though the rights set out in the Withdrawal Agreement apply across the continent, different countries have taken different approaches to implementing them.

That means that while in Germany, for example, UK citizens simply had to declare that they lived in the country, people in neighbouring Denmark had to apply for their rights.

This led to a notorious situation in Denmark in which as many as 2,000 Brits were threatened with deportation after not applying in time or completing the right application process. According to Golding, this had a lot to do with the fact that people who arrived in 2020 weren’t given the same information as other UK migrants who arrived before.

In Sweden, meanwhile, the situation is still difficult for many Brits who lived there prior to Brexit.

“There have been issues with an anomalously high numbers of refusals compared to other countries, and they seem to be taking a very strict approach on late applications,” Golding explained.

Portugal has been another difficult case. Although the country opted for a declaratory system where Brits could simply exchange old residence documents for a new ID card after Brexit, reports suggest that the authorities have taken years to issue these cards, leaving many of the some 34,000 Brits in the country in limbo.

“While people are still waiting to have their status confirmed and have their card in their hand, it’s difficult to access a whole range of services, like health services, or applying for jobs or dealing with the authorities, or even going to the bank,” Golding said. “All of these problems just affect people’s lives.”

A French border guard checks a passport at the border

A French border guard checks a passport at the border. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

There are also concerns about the EU’s new exit and entry system (EES), due to come into force in October, which is based on biometric documentation.

“We still do not have clear data on how many people in declaratory countries like Germany, where it wasn’t compulsory to apply for the card, don’t actually have a card,” Golding said. “How is that going to play out if it’s a document-based digitalised system?”

A lack of support

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was still available to support NGOs in Europe helping Brits with their migration and civil rights issues. But that temporary funding soon expired, leaving groups like British in Europe largely on their own.

“The whole point is people’s lives change at very different paces,” Golding said. “And now this project is really going to start to pick up some of those cases and report on those issues, which is really crucial and exciting for the precedent that it sets, and it’s very clearly necessary still, because people don’t just sort their lives in the 18 months that the FCDO chose to supply that funding.”

This feeling of being left alone and increasingly isolated from the UK is one that many Brits in Europe have felt in the aftermath of Brexit. But the upcoming UK election on July 4th could be a game-changer.

This time, following a change in the law, Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to vote for the first time.

Polling station in the UK

A polling station in the UK. Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

When it comes to the election, the message from British in Europe is clear: “Make your voice count now, make your vote count, make sure you use it,” Golding said.

With the June 18th registration deadline fast approaching, BiE is advising UK citizens abroad to apply for a proxy vote as soon as possible, rather than relying on a postal vote from abroad. Since the 15-year rule was abolished on January 16th, more than 100,000 British citizens have registered to vote, according to official statistics. It is unclear how many were registered before the change in the law.

With an estimated 5.5 million Brits currently living abroad – 1.3 million of whom are in the EU – this could have a significant impact on the electoral landscape, Golding says. But most significantly, the change is creating a feeling of connection and belonging that wasn’t there before.

Nurturing this sense of belonging is one of the main goals of ICE.

With these bridges being built, British in Europe hopes to create a network of support that spans across borders.

“Now we’ve met. We’re going to meet,” said Golding. “We know we’re going to meet again in Berlin in October and then we’ll meet again in the new year in 2025 as well. It means a huge amount because even British in Europe, our steering team, we’ve only met physically three times.”

This opens up the possibility of people sharing their knowledge from country to country, Golding explained.

“There is crossover and the reassurance of having that EU wide view and knowing that you’re not alone and knowing that in this country, we managed to get this solution,” she said. “And then you can go back and say to the authorities in your country, well, in that country they did that – all of that helps. It’s really good.”

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