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‘We need your help. Don’t let a no-deal Brexit haunt our lives in France’

Brits in France must act together with Brits around Europe so a no-deal Brexit doesn't become a nightmare that ruins their lives in France, argues Kalba Meadows from Remain in France Together

Published: 2 November 2018 16:01 CET

'We need your help. Don't let a no-deal Brexit haunt our lives in France'

The European Union flag flies in front of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

Promises don’t protect people

The People’s Vote march is over – you probably saw it in the media, passing all expectations of numbers with some 700,000 participants.

Among them were around 400 Brits living in all four corners of the EU, who came together to meet and march together alongside our friends the EU citizens in the UK. We walked, we talked, we chanted, we danced our way through London’s streets and if we only made it, because of sheer numbers, as far as Trafalgar Square, it didn’t detract at all from the fantastic sense of solidarity that was the keynote of the day for us all.

But the campaign to defend our rights is not over: even before the wheels of my plane home hit the tarmac it was back to working on the next phase of our vital Last Mile Citizens’ Lobby. And that’s where you come in.

There is an urgency in the Brexit negotiations, and it’s not just the Irish border.

Five million EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU are at risk of losing their existing rights on 29 March without a deal between Westminster and Brussels. And that includes you. If there is No Deal, unless something is done in the next five months 1.2m UK citizens across the EU27 States could wake up as illegal immigrants with no rights on 30 March 2019.

France and No Deal

The French government is taking the possibility of No Deal very seriously, and is proposing to put into place a decree – enabling legislation – that would permit quickly-passed laws for ‘legalising’ Brits living here and protecting at least some of our rights if the worst should happen. It should be coming before the Senate in 10 days or so, in fact.

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So that’s okay then, isn’t it? We’re safe.

Well, no, not exactly. It’s better than nothing, and kind of reassuring to know that our host country’s government at least has us in mind. But there are several problems with this kind of unilateral promise of rights – in fact it’s the worst of all possible solutions.

Here’s why. There are no guarantees and it would be unenforceable. At any point in the future, a French government could simply change its mind and go back on what it had said it would do. This is not at all a fanciful consideration in the current political climate. It wouldn’t cover those aspects of our rights currently dealt with by on a reciprocal basis: provision of health care via the S1 system, aggregation of pension contributions, payment of some social security and other benefits and continued recognition of qualifications.

The Minister for Europe, Nathalie Loiseau, has repeatedly stated that France’s primary interest is in the treatment of its own nationals living in the UK. The draft decree is clear: any rights accorded to resident Brits in a No Deal Brexit would only be equal to those given by the UK to French citizens living in the UK. Any reduction in rights on the other side of the Channel would be matched by a corresponding reduction in our own rights.

Add this to point 1 above and you can see that we would risk being perpetual bargaining chips, never certain that our rights would endure. This is no way to live.

So what’s the alternative?

Here is one simple, moral and obvious solution: to ring-fence the citizens’ rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement. In other words for the negotiators to agree, now, that even if they can agree nothing else, the agreement already made in draft on citizens’ rights will stand as the only agreement under Article 50.

What’s different about citizens’ rights is that both sides have said right from the start that preserving them is their number one priority, to be dealt with quite apart from Ireland and widgets and trade deals. On the assumption that this was said honestly, quite frankly neither side has anything to gain from making the citizens’ rights agreement conditional on any other. We are human beings, not bargaining chips.

And so this is what we’re focusing on in the Last Mile Citizens’ Lobby. British in Europe is hard at work talking to politicians and officials in the EU and right across the EU27 (including in France – more about that soon). But on 5 November we’re focusing our efforts on the UK Parliament, and we need your help and support.

Remember, remember the 5th of November British in Europe and the3million are going to Parliament – not with gunpowder, but in a mass lobby of MPs. Before that, we’ll be forming a human chain from Parliament Square to Downing Street, where 6 of us (including me) will be handing over a letter to Theresa May at Number Ten.

If you can join us in London you’ll be very welcome indeed. But even if you can’t, you can join in the mass lobby, and you don’t even need to leave your armchair.

Join the e-lobby

All you have to do is personalise our pre-written letter and send it to your MP, to ask them to do 2 things: Support our campaign for ring-fencing by signing this simple pledge “I support honouring under Article 50, as a minimum, the agreement already reached on citizens’ rights, whatever the outcome on Brexit”.

Come and meet committee members of British in Europe and the3million at Parliament on the afternoon of 5 November, where we can explain why ring-fencing is so important.

We need thousands of people to take part. And it’s now or never.

All the instructions, and the template letter for you to use, are here.

Don’t let a No-Deal become a nightmare that will haunt our lives in France for years to come. More than ever, we must all come together now to make sure that this doesn’t happen. The e-lobby is open now, and will take you no more than 20 minutes. Please get involved.

No plot. No powder. Just people and their lives.

Kalba Meadows is citizens' rights coordinator of the group Remain in France Together, and a member of the steering committee of British in Europe.

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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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