THERESA May has finally told the three million EU citizens living in the UK that they can stay after Brexit.
The Prime Minister made the announcement at the European Council in Brussels last night, telling the leaders of the other 27 EU countries that any of their citizens who have been in Britain for the last five years would not have to leave. However, the deal is dependent on Europe offering similar terms to the roughly 900,000 Brits living in the EU.
The new “settled EU status” category of immigration would mean Europeans living here would be able to access health and education.
READ MORE: Theresa May's plan for EU nationals branded 'pathetic' by campaigners
Those arriving after the cut-off date but before the date of Brexit in March 2019 would have a “grace period” – expected to be two years – to regularise their immigration status, with a view to later seeking settled status.
Addressing the other leaders after dinner May said her offer was credible. “The UK’s position represents a fair and serious offer, and one aimed at giving as much certainty as possible to citizens who have settled in the UK, building careers and lives and contributing so much to our society,” the Prime Minister said.
May’s offer does falls short of what the EU had asked for. They wanted all citizens from countries in the bloc living in the UK to maintain all EU rights in perpetuity, and for the European court of justice to be the guarantor of those rights.
Campaigners for EU citizens living in the UK branded the Prime Minister’s offer as “disgraceful”. Nicolas Hatton, the founder of the3million said: “They have gone for the worst scenario possible, this is just negotiation tactics and it is disgusting. They do not want to engage with EU citizens and they think it’s just this big game.”
May’s tone, however has been slightly less bullish than it has been.
The Prime Minister had hoped to be walking confidently into the European Council meeting having secured a mandate for her vision of Brexit from the British public in this month’s snap election.
But the result has left May humiliated and unsecure. The Tory Brexit project – celebrating its first birthday today – is shoogly.
Brexit negotiations started on Monday, despite May not having reached a deal with the DUP’s 10 MPs to give her a majority in the Commons.
One of the first acts of the UK’s negotiating team was to immediately capitulate to the EU’s demands to pay the divorce bill, which reports put between €60 billion and €100bn.
The UK is seemingly in no real position to call the shots. German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that Brexit was far down the agenda of the Council meeting.
Merkel, like many of the other leaders at the Brussels summit, was far more interested in the future of the EU and Europe. “For me the shaping of the future of the 27 is a priority coming before the issue of the negotiations with Britain on the exit,” Merkel said. “We want to conduct these negotiations in a good spirit but the clear focus has to be on the future of the 27.”
A European diplomat told AFP that there was “no question of any discussion, let alone any negotiation” with May at the summit.
The real star attraction of the conference was staunchly pro-EU new French President Emmanuel Macron. His election, and the French rejection of the populist, isolationist hard-right politics of Marine Le Pen, has left the EU feeling as if it has turned a corner.
Aside from the divorce bill and the rights of citizens, the third priority for May and the EU is the future of Northern Ireland. The logistics of how to make the UK’s only land border with the EU work after causing real headaches in London, Dublin, Brussels, and Belfast.
European Council President Donald Tusk channelled John Lennon as he said he hoped Brexit could be reversed. “Some of my British friends have asked me whether Brexit could be reversed, and whether I could imagine an outcome where the UK stays part of the European Union,” Tusk told reporters. “I told them that in fact the European Union was built on dreams that seemed impossible to achieve, so who knows?
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one,” he added with a broad smile, quoting Lennon’s iconic song Imagine.
But Belgian prime minister Charles Michel – who has strongly argued for EU unity on Brexit – said Tusk should let it be, that Britain in Europe belonged in the yesterday, and that the other 27 countries should come together. “It’s time for action and certainty. Not for dreams and uncertainty #Brexit #Future of Europe,” he tweeted.
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