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| Robin Walker in Madrid yesterday with Ambassador Manley |
On Thursday 4 October, representatives
from Spanish citizens’ rights groups (Bremain in Spain, Brexpats Spain, ECREU
and EuroCitizens) met British embassy officials and DExEU minister Robin
Walker. During the morning session we were given an update on healthcare,
registration and consular back-up by different members of the FCO team. This
was followed by an hour-long meeting with the minister. The exchange of views took place in
a cordial atmosphere, with the minister giving a positive hearing to the points
raised.
Mr Walker recognised that the current
Withdrawal Agreement, whilst covering important areas such as healthcare and
host country residence, did not include key rights such as the freedom of
movement for Britons within the EU-27 and related issues like cross-border
service provision. The minister said that this matter had been left for the
negotiations about the future EU/UK relationship; we strongly criticised this
position, stressing that the 1.2 million Britons in Europe are a finite group
of people who have already exercised our
freedom of movement rights within the EU-27. We drew Mr Walker’s attention to
the European Parliament’s red lines and their suggestion that the EU might
accept the keeping of
our current freedom of movement
in exchange for a lifetime right of return for EUinUK citizens. We also mooted
that the UK should seek a standstill position to cover freedom of movement and
associated economic rights throughout the negotiations, should this exceed the
transition period.
Whilst the Withdrawal Agreement does
not cover political rights, which are the competence of member states, Robin
Walker gave some very positive news regarding Spain. He said that discussions
between the two governments about future bilateral arrangements on political
rights, enabling Spaniards in the UK and Britons in Spain to stand and vote in
local elections, are at an advanced stage and should be concluded soon.
The minister remained confident that a
deal was still possible at the October European Council summit, but citizens’
groups underlined the huge risks for British migrants in Spain of a no-deal
scenario as it would entail massive future uncertainty and the immediate loss
of many of our EU citizenship rights as we would immediately fall under Third
Country National and national legislation. The minister gave an assurance that
HMG had embarked on no-deal contingency planning and mentioned the UK’s
unilateral assurances to EUinUK citizens. We pointed out that no technical note
regarding UKinEU had been published and that any unilateral guarantees by the
UK government were insufficient without reciprocal agreement. The
representatives of all four groups were united in their demand for the urgent
ring-fencing of Citizens’ Rights from other aspects of the Withdrawal
Agreement.
We then brought up issues falling
within the sole grant of the British government, such as automatic uprating of
UK pensions for Britons in the EU, which we were told had already been agreed
on. We pointed out that family reunification rights for UK returnees with EU
spouses and family were vital and highlighted the issue of home university fees
for UKinEU citizens, guaranteed until 2020 but no further. Mr Walker took note
of both issues.
Representatives of the groups stressed
that the current situation was one of negotiating degrees of loss, given that
the EU status quo was far superior to anything that could be obtained in the
context of Brexit, let alone in a no-deal scenario. When we raised the issue of
votes for life for UKinEU, the minister was personally sympathetic but could
give no specific guarantees.
Whilst thanking the minister for
meeting us, we roundly criticised HMG’s failure to engage with us more fully at
an earlier stage and for ignoring British in Europe's repeated requests for
meetings with the DExEU Secretary of State and with Theresa May. We also
commented on the PM’s failure to even mention us in recent key prime
ministerial speeches. On the topic of UK government messaging, after hearing
our criticisms of government spin, Mr Walker admitted that it was not enough to
produce glib and general statements in an attempt to reassure Britons in the
EU-27 and that citizens needed specific information about how changes might
affect their lives.
