LONDON: Britain’s agreement with the European Union over key Brexit terms still leaves major issues like freedom of movement undecided, some campaigners said on Friday.
Prime Minister Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled an agreement earlier on the Irish border, citizens’ rights and the Brexit bill, opening the way for talks on trade and a transition period.
While the status of the EU’s only land border with the United Kingdom was perhaps the thorniest issue, the deal safeguarding the rights of 3 million EU citizens in Britain and around 1.2 million Britons living elsewhere in the EU will affect households across the continent.
London and Brussels agreed to offer equal treatment in social security, healthcare, employment and education and to let British judges ask the European Court of Justice to weigh in when necessary for eight years after Brexit.
But Jane Golding, who heads British in Europe, a coalition of 10 citizens’ groups representing around 35,000 Britons living in the rest of the bloc, said fundamental issues have not been dealt with.
“The really big one is free movement, and we are worried that is just simply going to be deferred until the next phase,” Golding, a Briton who has lived in Berlin for nine years, said.
“In future, if you don’t have the right of free movement, the right to go and work and live in those other countries and have your qualifications recognised in those other countries, you could be passed up for those opportunities, and that’s going to impact your career,” she said.
Friday’s agreement does not specify whether British citizens may move from one EU state to another and retain the same rights. Getting a deal that works is crucial to both Britain, the world’s sixth-largest economy, and the EU, the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Britons hold positions in major businesses across the continent and take advantage of overseas study schemes such as Erasmus, while tens of thousands of elderly people rely on EU agreements for access to public services and their pensions in countries such as Spain.
EU citizens fill key roles in Britain’s state-run health service, construction sector and many professional jobs, with British business leaders keen to retain unfettered access to the continent’s labour market.
Nicolas Hatton, co-chair of the 3 million, a campaign group supporting the rights of EU and British citizens with around 35,000 members on Facebook, said he was unhappy that the deal backed Britain’s stance of making EU citizens apply to remain in the country. — Reuters
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