The European Parliament has stepped up the pressure on the UK over its treatment of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit, urging Boris Johnson’s government to address shortcomings that could undermine the country’s “settled status” scheme.
MEPs set out a list of concerns on Wednesday, including the risk that people who do not meet application deadlines could be deported, that the elderly are struggling to navigate the bureaucracy of applying and that a planned watchdog will be toothless.
The text adopted by the parliament in Strasbourg warns that MEPs “will take into account” the progress with settled status when they vote later this month on whether to approve the Brexit deal that Mr Johnson reached last year with the EU.
While there is little chance the parliament would vote down Mr Johnson’s Brexit agreement — a move that would plunge the process into chaos — the resolution is a sign of how the citizens’ rights issue has the power to damage future EU-UK relations.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, told MEPs on Tuesday that Brussels “will be particularly alert to EU citizens encountering difficulties in obtaining the new residence status”.
“We will not accept any half measures or any disguised discrimination,” he said.
Securing the rights of about 3.2m EU nationals living in the UK was a top priority for Brussels during its Brexit divorce negotiations with Britain. The EU insisted that a negotiated Brexit was impossible unless the UK offered clear guarantees that EU nationals would be able to continue living and working in the country.
The UK government’s approach was to introduce the settled status scheme, which allows EU nationals to keep their existing rights if they have lived in Britain for a continuous five-year period. People resident in the UK for fewer than five years, or who arrive between now and the end of 2020, can apply for an interim “pre-settled” status.
According to the most recent data from the Home Office, the total number of applications received was 2.8m with 2.5m granted. EU citizens and their families already living in the UK have until June 2021 to apply.
Officials in Brussels said that upholding citizens’ rights — including for the 1.2m UK citizens living in the EU’s 27 member states — would be one of the priorities for both sides as the new Brexit transition arrangements come into force on February 1.
Officials warned that upcoming negotiations with Britain on its future relationship with the EU could be derailed if the rollout of the withdrawal agreement — which maintains existing trading arrangements between the UK and EU — does not go smoothly.
The UK has insisted that the scheme is working well and that Britain is fulfilling its obligations. Brandon Lewis, UK security minister, wrote to the parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt last year complaining of “misconceptions” and “inaccurate press coverage” about the settled status scheme.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Home Office said: “We have done far more than any other EU member state has done for British citizens, and it’s time they adopted a similarly generous approach.”
Mr Verhofstadt travels to London this week for meetings with UK government figures, including Brexit minister Stephen Barclay, to press MEPs’ concerns.
