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Italy braces for ‘undesirable’ no-deal Brexit after agreement’s defeat

The Italian government has pledged to step up preparations for all Brexit scenarios, including no deal, the morning after British MPs shot down a proposed withdrawal agreement.

Published: 16 January 2019 11:48 CET
Italy braces for 'undesirable' no-deal Brexit after agreement's defeat
Anti-Brexit protesters in Rome, 2017. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

The Italian prime minister's office said that Rome would continue to work with other EU members “to limit the negative consequences of Brexit, and in particular, to guarantee the rights of Italian citizens in the United Kingdom and British citizens in Italy, the stability of the markets, banking, insurance and financial sectors, and a withdrawal that is as orderly as possible in all other respects to protect citizens and businesses”.

“In this context,” the statement continued, “preparations for all scenarios will continue and intensify, including for the undesirable scenario of a withdrawal without an agreement on March 29th, 2019.”

That prospect looks closer than ever after the UK parliament resoundingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday night. 

READ THE LATEST: Brits in EU demand to be spared from Brexit 'train crash' after May's deal rejected


Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP

“We are in the theatre of the absurd,” a former senior EU Commission official told The Local.

“What comes next is unclear. The UK must on any reckoning be closer to a no-deal exit than it was before. Article 50 states that the UK will leave on March 29th, deal or no deal. Unless of course Parliament votes to revoke Article 50 – which seems to be excluded in political terms.”

The vote left Brits in Italy facing fresh uncertainty about their future here.

“Following the largest defeat of any government in over 100 years, Theresa May said only that EU citizens in the UK and British nationals in the EU deserve clarity as to their future and their rights. But she singularly failed to offer any plan as to how to achieve that,” said British in Italy, a group that campaigns for citizens' rights.

“Our citizens' rights that have already been negotiated and agreed between the UK and EU could so easily be ring-fenced. Theresa May has offered nothing – not even an extension to the Article 50 period in order to discuss such a proposition with Europe.”

READ ALSO: Italy guarantees citizens' rights for Brits after Brexit


Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

The Italian government has promised that British nationals legally resident in Italy will not lose their rights to live and work here when the UK withdraws from the EU just over 70 days from now, whether there is a deal by then or not. Without an agreement, though, Brits will need to apply for permanent residency to guarantee their long-term future in Italy, in a procedure that has not yet been defined.

A no-deal Brexit would also have consequences for Italian industry, which warned of serious economic fall-out. 

“No deal would be a very negative scenario for Italian businesses,” commented Lisa Ferrarini, head of the Ferrarini food export group and vice-president of Italy's business association Confindustria. “Our exports to the UK are worth around €20 billion a year. Many sectors would be hit, including mechanics, food production, logistics and transport.”

READ ALSO: What's at stake for Italy in the Brexit negotiations?

“No deal would reimpose bureaucracy and customs tariffs, with great difficulties for exports and the movement of people,” Ferrarini said. “Not to mention legislation different from the EU's, which would mean obstacles, tariffs or otherwise.”

The same fears extend to the hundreds of thousands of Italians who live and work in the UK. London, which has enough Italy-born residents to make it the fifth biggest Italian city after Roma, Milan, Turin and Naples, has long been the destination of choice for young Italians seeking opportunities – but no more, one recent study indicates.

Recruitment site Indeed found that number of searches for jobs in the UK from people based in Italy dropped by 13 percent between 2015-18, while over the same period, searches by UK-based users for work in Italy climbed by 16 percent. Whether those came from Italians looking to return or Brits hoping to flee is unclear.

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BREXIT

REVEALED: Thousands of Britons still moving to EU countries despite Brexit

More than 42,000 British citizens moved to EU countries in 2023, with the largest groups recorded in Spain, France and Germany, according to data published recently by the EU statistical office Eurostat.

Published: 20 September 2024 16:44 CEST
REVEALED: Thousands of Britons still moving to EU countries despite Brexit

The data refers to the number of first-time residence permits being issued last year.

It’s defined as “any authorisation issued by the authorities of an EU country allowing a third-country national (non-EU citizen) to stay legally on its territory”.

Based on information provided by national authorities to the EU statistical office, 42,029 first-time residence permits were issued to UK citizens in 2023, a slight drop compared to the 45,794 in 2022.

The largest proportion of these permits were issued for employment reasons(13,423), followed by family reunions (11,074), “other reasons” (10,961), and then education (6,571). “Other reasons” include any option not covered by the other three, from retirement to international protection.

Spain and France the most popular

Spain is the country that issued the largest number of new residence permits to UK citizens (10,166), but only 1,266 were because of jobs. Most of the first-time permits (3,768) were issued for ‘other reasons’, followed by family (3,311) and education purposes (1,821).

The recent news that a British football coach was denied a dream move to Real Madrid due to work permit rules showed that Britons can’t move to Spain so easily after Brexit especially for employment reasons.

The coach found out the hard way that getting a work permit to live in Spain is now quite tricky, especially for young Brits, who will need to prove that they’re highly skilled while employers must demonstrate that there are no other suitable candidates.

To give some perspective, although the data is not exactly comparable, Eurostat’s immigration data show that some 23,900 British citizens moved to Spain alone in 2018, and over 33,900 in 2019 – so prior to Brexit.

READ ALSO: The reasons why Brits are moving to Spain post-Brexit

France followed, with 8,114 first residence permits granted to UK nationals (although France’s Interior Ministry released figures earlier this year that revealed a slightly higher number of Brits – 9,261 – had been given residency permits in 2023).

The largest proportion of permits received by Brits in France was for employment reasons (3,649), coming before education (1,798), other reasons (1,666) and family reunions (1,001).

READ ALSO: Thousands of Brits move to France despite post-Brexit hurdles

Germany reported 4,584 first residence permits to UK citizens in 2023, of which 1,765 for work, 1,468 for other reasons, 882 for family reunions and 469 for education.

READ ALSO: The reasons Brits are moving to Germany post-Brexit

The other two most popular countries for British nationals in 2023 were the Netherlands (3,750 first residence permits of which 1,713 for employment) and Portugal (2,565 of which 1,144 for other reasons).

Italy reported 2,177 first residence permits for UK citizens, of which 1,124 for other reasons 621 to join family, 278 for employment and 154 for education.

For Denmark, the total was 1,852, but the majority (1,264) were for work purposes, 280 to join family, 243 for education and 65 other reasons.

Sweden issued 1,632 first residence permits to British nationals, mostly for family reasons (710), followed by employment (474), education (247), and other reasons (201).

Austria reported 529 first residence permits to UK citizens, of which 201 for employment, 191 for family reasons, 70 for education, and 67 for other purposes.

Outside of the EU, but part of the free movement area, Norway registered 1,736 new residence permits to UK nationals, of which 1,033 for employment, 366 to join family, 146 for education, and 201 for other reasons.

In Norway, Britons were the third nationality for first residence permits and in Bulgaria the fourth, although the number of UK citizens moving to Central and Eastern Europe is much lower than in Western Europe.

The Eurostat database does not yet include 2023 data for Switzerland.

Data on first-time residence permits gives a general indication on the number of people who moved to EU countries in a given year, although Eurostat told The Local that “the date of issuance of a permit does not necessarily mean the physical movement of the person on that date, as non-EU citizens might have already temporarily resided on the basis of e.g. short stay visa” or due to irregular stays.

More than 3.7 million first residence permits

In total, in 2023 EU countries reported the granting of more than 3.7 million first residence permits, a 4.7 percent increase compared to 2022, and the highest number ever recorded.

Employment remained the main reason (1.3 million or 33.8%), followed by family (986,000 or 26.4% of the total), other purposes (956,000 or 25.6%) and education (185,900 or 14.3%). The increase compared to 2022 was due to permits issued for education, family reunification and other reasons, while those for employment slightly declined.

The top 10 nationalities receiving these permits were Ukraine, Belarus, India, Morocco, Syria, Türkiye, Russia, China, Brazil and Afghanistan.

Poland issued the largest number of first residence permits in the EU (642,789), followed by Germany (586,144), Spain (548,697), Italy (389,542) and France (335,074).

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