EU gets tough with UK over post-Brexit citizens rights – POLITICO Europe

LONDON The EU has accused the U.K. of failing to comply with its post-Brexit obligations toward EU nationals in Britain.

European Commission Vice President Maroefovi and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met Monday in Brussels for the ninth meeting of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee, a regular forum to discuss the implementation of the Brexit divorce deal and its Northern Ireland protocol.

The meeting ended with the Commission accusing Britain of breaching the Withdrawal Agreement with its treatment of EU nationals, and without a deal on any of the outstanding post-Brexit differences on Northern Ireland trade rules.

Speaking at a press conference, efovi said he regretted the U.K.s position on citizens rights and said talks on Irish Sea trade rules required more time, pointing out that Mondays meeting had yielded neither a breakthrough nor a breakdown.

Under the U.K.s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), EU citizens who settled in Britain before Brexit and lived in the country for less than five years can be granted pre-settled status, allowing them to preserve their rights to live, work and access U.K. public services.

But the EU has for many months fought the U.K.s decision to require this group to make a second application within five years of the granting of pre-settled status. If they fail to do so, the Home Office will consider them unlawfully present in the U.K. and no longer entitled to exercise residence rights. About 2 million EU citizens might be affected by this requirement, according to the Commission.

efovi also accused the U.K. of splitting EU citizens into two cohorts indistinguishable on the basis of their EUSS status depending on whether they had private health insurance during periods of their residence when they were economically inactive, among other factors. Londons view is that they are being more generous with EU nationals than what the Withdrawal Agreement requires.

I had to regret the U.K.s position on both issues so far and I will consider our next steps, he said. We are speaking about millions of people, their livelihoods, their families, their individual destiny and I think it was a commitment from both of us that we will do our utmost for the U.K. nationals in the EU and the EU citizens staying in the U.K.

efovi added he believed an amicable solution to these issues could still be reached through the EU-U.K. Specialised Committee on Citizens Rights. This is not the first time the EU has brought up these problems in Joint Committee meetings, but an EU official said the Commission will now consider whether to launch consultations on citizens rights, and could ultimately trigger an arbitration process.

Brussels has not yet decided on the timeline of any action, but the official said the Commission might not wait for the outcome of judicial review proceedings on the second application requirement, launched in December by the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA), a body that seeks to ensure the rights of EU citizens settled in the U.K. before Brexit are respected.

A British official said the EU-U.K. relationship on citizens rights is working well despite teething problems for both sides.

London also raised three areas of concern: the lack of an adequate appeal process in some EU countries for Brits who are refused residence status; problems with paperwork proving peoples right to be other countries; and people being asked to prove things they shouldnt have to in order to access their rights. The EU promised to make progress in these areas.

The vast majority of people, whether theyre EU people in the U.K. or U.K. people in EU member states, have had their status confirmed, the official said. But obviously this is an incredibly sensitive and important area and we're being clear on what needs to happen for those who are facing problems.

Since the start of the year, the EU and the U.K. have sought to intensify technical talks on easing the burden for Northern Irelands citizens and businesses of the new post-Brexit trade rules. But they failed to deliver a partial deal on customs paperwork or medicines supply from Great Britain into Northern Ireland before the start of the campaign for the Northern Ireland Assembly election, as they had hoped.

efovi, however, tried to strike a positive tone, praising Britain for starting to give the EU access to its customs databases after keeping EU officials waiting for more than a year.

An EU official said there has been some incremental progress on customs facilitation, including the accuracy of the data the U.K. collects, and on the safeguards required by Brussels in exchange for fewer formalities. However, there is no agreement on the number of data fields in a customs declaration, with Brussels offering a reduction from 80 to 30 and London considering the offer insufficient.

Progress on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls on agri-food products and live animals moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland will not be unlocked until Britain accepts it must apply the standards it agreed to under the Northern Ireland protocol, the EU official said.

The U.K., meanwhile, continues to accuse the Commission of obsessing over hypothetical scenarios that it says have a very low likelihood of happening such as illicit English olive oil finding its way into the EU single market through Northern Ireland unless it carries a custom code.

efovi told reporters he considered the row over the supply of medicines from Great Britain into Northern Ireland to have been solved, although this is yet to be confirmed by the U.K. government. Officials will redouble their efforts in the coming weeks to reach practical solutions to their outstanding differences over customs requirements and SPS checks, he added.

The talks, however, are expected to enter a more quiet phase so as to not interfere in the Northern Ireland election, due May 5. Earlier this month, the regional executive collapsed after the main unionist party in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists, withdrew their first minister over opposition to the protocol.

In a joint statement, Truss and efovi expressed the ongoing determination of both parties to ensure that the outstanding issues in the context of the protocol are addressed, and durable solutions found for the benefit of citizens, businesses and stability in Northern Ireland.

Leonie Kijewski contributed reporting from Brussels.

This article has been updated.

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EU gets tough with UK over post-Brexit citizens rights - POLITICO Europe