With over 1,000 days in limbo, the five million EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU have had enough. We are appealing to the heads of state of the EU27 to ensure that we retain international protection of our rights, even in case of no-deal.
We recently joined forces with Alberto Costa, a Tory MP of Italian descent who has always been sympathetic to our cause. Together we worked on the Costa amendment that in essence gave a mandate to Theresa May to talk to the EU and jointly decide to rescue citizens’ rights if the rest of the deal is discarded.
This amendment was unanimously voted for in the UK parliament on 27 February – a show of unity not seen since the referendum. And a glimmer of hope for us while the spectre of no-deal is still looming large.
The EU has so far said no to the British olive branch – out of fear of cherry-picking and also because Barnier’s mandate so far has been „nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” We beg to differ: the mandate is outdated, negotiations have finished, and this would not be a new mini-deal but simply what is left over from a toxic two years of negotiating. It is not acceptable for us that five million Europeans, who don’t know what rights they will have at the end of this month, are sacrificed to a political principle that has lost its validity.
The Withdrawal Agreement isn’t perfect but it does protect all five million affected people for life and through an international agreement. It also protect complex social and pension rights in a way 27 individual agreements with GB could never do – for example aggregate pensions for people who have worked in several EU countries.
In case of no-deal, the rights of five million people will be guided by 28 different legislations and in most case will be lesser rights – EU citizens living in the UK are losing family reunion rights, for example as well a monitoring authority. And our rights can change from one day to the next, without parliamentary scrutiny.
Who is ultimately responsible for the five million lives directly affected by Brexit? Among them are people who don’t know whether they will have a job in a month’s time or whether they are still entitled to chemotherapy at their local hospital. EU citizens in the UK have to apply to stay, no matter how long they’ve lived in the country, no matter whether they’ve had a previous immigration status like permanent residence. In the best-case scenario we end up with fewer rights and a digital ID number. The worst case means removal.
We are the children of Europe who built our lives on freedom of movement. We have become the victims of political decisions we had no say in. It is time that the EU Council is doing the right thing, irrespective of mandates and political manoeuvres. I know that trust in the UK’s political leadership is at an all time low. I also know Theresa May addressed her letter in which she reluctantly asked for ring-fencing citizens’ rights to Michel Barnier who has no mandate – the letter should have gone to the EU Council who has the power to change Barnier’s mandate.
However, this is the last opportunity for the EU to do the only thing that is morally right: to salvage what has been agreed on citizens’ rights through the Article 50 procedure, before Brexit day.
People are not cherries to be picked and time is running out to protect the rights for a finite group of five million people who got caught up in this messy divorce. We are exhausted and are pleading with the European Council to give us back our future on 22 March by agreeing to ring-fence our rights regardless of the Brexit outcome.
The EU must not allow a political principle to get in the way of a moral principle.