'BRITISH IN EUROPE' GROUPS MEET UK GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES IN ALICANTE

After the meeting in Alicante Photo: Europats

Early on Wednesday morning, several of the groups in the British in Europe coalition met with high-level government representatives in the British Embassy in Madrid, including Spanish associations Bremain, ECREU and EuroCitizens. This was followed by an afternoon meeting between UK officials and local groups and citizens in Alicante, attended by representatives of two coalition members, ECREU and Europats.
The issues dealt with were as follows: reciprocal healthcare; the automatic updating of UK state pensions; aggregated pensions (for people who have worked in different EU countries); the freedom of movement after Brexit; the mutual recognition of qualifications; the recognition of wills; the possibility of EU citizenship; votes for life for disenfranchised UK nationals abroad; dual nationality for Britons in Spain; residency issues and passports; the future of political rights for UK nationals in Spain.

Government representatives were optimistic about obtaining Votes for Life, but that this would take time and not be ready for the next election. They underlined that they were committed to helping UK citizens retain their existing rights and that both the Spanish and British governments had citizens' rights as their number one priority.