Today is Europe Day, a time to celebrate what the EU has done for Europe and its people. It is of particular relevance to the 1.2 million Britons in EU27 countries in danger of losing their European identity and rights. Last Europe Day, most of us paid little attention, as we took our citizenship for granted. This year, after the Brexit referendum in which most of us could not vote, we must take stock of what we have to lose from the UK's departure from the EU. And we must be ready to fight for our rights.....
After that preamble, here is the EuroCitizens newsletter explaining what we have been up to and what our plans are:
Though the frenetic press activity around Clause 50 has died down, the
last two or three weeks have been very busy. Perhaps the most important
development has been the full incorporation of EuroCitizens into the
British in Europe Coalition, with whom we are now in close touch via
email, a document-sharing site and weekly
conference calls. We reported how, after the 20 April with the Foreign
Office and DExEU, the groups got together to plan future action
together, particularly at a Spanish level. In many ways, the four
Spanish groups are complementary. For
example, Bremain has a large presence on the coast where most UK
nationals live. They are particularly focused on UK lobbying and have
mounted an effective campaign for voter registration and tactical voting
in the 8 June General Election. EuroCitizens has a smaller member base
with a different demographic, but our location in Madrid means that we
are well located for lobbying of the Spanish government and national
politicians as well as working with the national media.
In the last few days, we have contacted and held meetings with senior
politicians from the PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos (we are still working on
Podemos). We have received a very sympathetic response from these three
political parties who firmly back our campaign to maintain citizens'
rights for both Spanish and British citizens. We have also received
useful help from MEPs, in particular from Beatriz Becerra (ALDE). Our
next aim is to meet government ministers and we have sent a letter to
the foreign minister Alfonso Dastis.