Recently a number of constituents currently living
in Europe have written to me to ask if I would support the 'Costa Amendment' to
ring-fence the rights of millions of UK citizens living in the EU.
Many of my parliamentary colleagues will be voting
for Alberto Costa MP’s amendment if and when it is put before the House of
Commons this week, and I too will be supporting the amendment.
The amendment that I will be supporting will ask
the Prime Minister to “seek at the earliest opportunity a joint UK-EU
commitment to adopt part two of the withdrawal agreement on citizens rights and
ensure its implementation prior to the UK’s exiting the European Union,
whatever the outcome of negotiations on other aspects of the withdrawal
agreement”.
In Parliament I have consistently spoken up in
favour of citizens rights being safeguarded, regardless of the outcome of the
Brexit negotiations. I have been encouraged by the clear commitment made by the
Conservative government to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK,
even if we leave without a deal.
The UK Government has been clear that it will
safeguard rights of over 3 million EU Citizens living in the UK. Even if
there is no deal, changes to the Immigration Rules laid before Parliament in
July mean that EU citizens will be able to remain through the Settled Status
Scheme.
In light of this offer of goodwill to all EU
citizens living in the UK, it is disappointing the EU-27 have yet to publish
any concrete plans to retain the rights of British citizens living on the
continent post-Brexit. I have asked government ministers to give the public
greater clarity on what they are doing to ensure that EU leaders can agree on
reciprocal arrangements for UK citizens living in the EU, and will continue to
do so.
The existing EU plan for citizens rights under
no-deal is unsatisfactory. It relies on the argument that the rights issue
falls under immigration policy, which is left at the level of the nation state.
So instead of coming up with centralised plans, they'll simply instruct
countries to regularise the status of Brits in their territory, with little
control over how - or if - that will be pursued.
With little time left until our departure from the
EU, should we leave without a deal (which is the current default legal
position) officials in Brussels will need to be working on a citizen's rights
treaty now, if it has any chance of being ratified and implemented before the
end of March.
The Costa amendment, when voted through, will give
the Prime Minister a clear mandate to go back to Brussels and ask the EU to
seek a new mandate for a bloc-wide deal on citizens rights.
