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| Centro Gallego 17/10/19 |
On Thursday 17 October EuroCitizens organised a round table
on citizens’ rights in the Centro Gallego in Madrid. Live streaming on Facebook enabled people from all over Spain to send in their queries and watch the
session - so far nearly 2,000 have done so. The event achieved its main aim,
to analyse the possible Brexit scenarios and to present the alternatives that
we have to third-country-national status.
EuroCitizen president, Michael Harris, tried to frame the debate. He started by describing the
potential Brexit scenarios: Deal with Withdrawal Agreement; No Deal but covered
by the Spanish Royal Decree 5/2019; No Deal with no Brexit contingency plans.
He stressed that the best deal for Britons in Spain is to stay in the EU and to
remain European citizens. Michael explained the alternatives to ‘bog-standard’
Spanish third-country-national status. One of these is the little-known EU
long-term residence (residencia
de larga duración-UE) which gives improved intra-EU mobility. Another choice, for
many Britons, is EU family member status under the more benign EU immigration
regime (this is also available for people who are ‘parejas de hecho’). The final option is Spanish
nationality, an area which EuroCitizens has done a lot of work on. It appears
that, possibly due to our lobbying and media activity, the processing times for
applications is being reduced as more resources are being diverted to it.
HM Consul Sarah-Jane Morris said that Brexit would most affect
‘post-Brexit Britons’: those who have not exercised their EU freedom of
movement rights before Brexit. This category includes ‘swallows’ - those
Britons who spend several months a year in Spain, but are UK residents. They
will be restricted to spending 90 out of every 180 days within the Schengen Area,
due to the end of freedom of movement between the UK and the EU. Sarah-Jane
said that there are also two kinds of ‘pre-Brexit Britons’: those working or
who have worked in Spain and are now retired; UK pensioners covered by the S1
healthcare scheme. Both these groups will keep their residence rights, access
to healthcare and social security etc in a No Deal covered by the Spanish Royal
Decree. However, British citizens have options to proactively protect their
rights by making sure they are correctly registered and by keeping up to date
on what is happening. On the issue of reciprocity, the consul stressed that
British and Spanish officials have been working hard for some time in technical
discussions to clarify and reach agreement on vital issues such as reciprocity
in healthcare and social security.
Immigration lawyer, Margaret Hauschild, pointed out the differences between
a No Deal covered by Royal Decree 5/2019 and a disorderly No Deal Brexit with
no reciprocity between the UK and Spain. Spanish contingency plans (Royal
Decree 5/2019) give a 21-month grace period, maintain the benign EU citizen
requirements for residence and establish a straightforward declaratory
registration system. On the other hand, if reciprocity breaks down (an unlikely
and undesirable situation), Britons would find themselves in a much worse
situation. They would be illegal immigrants, with only three months to register
as third-country nationals and become legal. They would also face
third-country-national residence requirements (such as the mininum income of
30,000€ for non-working residents).
EuroCitizen committee member, John Richards, discussed the ongoing
political uncertainty, but with the increased likelihood at the time of
speaking of a Deal. He listed issues which are either wholly or partly within
the gift of the UK goverment and which have a big impact on the capacity of
Britons to continue living in Spain. These include automatic UK pensions
uprating (for more than the three years promised), seamless cooperation on
Social Security, UK home university fees and continued S1 healthcare
cooperation between the UK and Spain. He also looked at the issue of Britons
returning to the UK: the ability of people to access healthcare and benefits
after their return; the situation of the EU family members of returning
Britons.
Most of the session was taken up by questions from the
floor or through Facebook via EuroCitizen treasurer, Ian Sullivan. Here
is a list of the issues which we dealt with - and which you can watch on the
video:
- when to apply for long-term residence during the
grace period if you almost qualify for it
- reciprocity
on citizens’ rights between the UK and Spain
- digital and
non-digital delivery of services throughout the EU-27 after Brexit
- the processing of Spanish nationality applications
and the parallel tracks of residence and citizenship applications
- the length of absences from Spain under
third-country-national status (12 months) and under the Withdrawal Agreement (5
years)
- dual nationality for Britons and being careful with the
de facto use of two passports
- changing EU residence certificates for
third-country-national identity cards (TIE: tarjeta de identifación de
extranjero)
- registration as EU family members and the
possibility of having to do so as a temporary resident despite having lived
more than five years in Spain, an issue pending with the Spanish govt
- processing times for residence and immigration
offices (oficinas de extranjería), particularly in provinces like
Alicante and Málaga with large UK populations
- the continuation of the S1 healthcare scheme
- the EuroCitizens guide to citizenship applications
The overall message from the event for UK citizens was
reassuring although it is clear that all of us will have to be more proactive now
we are about to leave the relative cocoon of EU citizenship. Something
positive to take home is that, under the Royal Decree 5/2019, Britons will be a
protected group of third-country nationals - and this will logically be the
same under the Withdrawal Agreement in the case of a Deal. Finally, despite the
often alarming ‘noise’ created by the
declarations of politicans, the officials of both Spain and UK have been
working together for some time in ‘technical discussions’ to clarify issues
like reciprocity and pave the way for bilateral deals which can compensate, to
some extent, for our loss of EU citizenship. A good case was the treaty earlier
this year signed by the UK and Spain on voting in local elections.
