The situation and rights of EU citizens in the UK is discussed during the joint hearing at the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Committee on Petitions (PETI) in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Anne-Laure DONSKOY, Representative of the 3 million group, Jan DOERFL, Immigration barrister in the UK, Charlie JEFFERY, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Leona BASHOW, British Petinioner, and Anne WILKINSON, British Petitioner.

Brussels

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

article 50 of the Lisbon treaty (T)

EU - United Kingdom (T)

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

joint hearing

Committee on Petitions

The situation and rights of EU citizens in the UK: extracts from the joint hearing at EMPL, LIBE, and PETI Committees

SOUNDBITE (English), Anne-Laure DONSKOY, Representative of the 3 million group, Since the referendum there have been countless reports of EU citizens facing difficulties in their daily life. For instance when opening bank accounts, potential tenants being turned down, people being discouraged or turned down for jobs as well as being confronted to job adverts which openly discriminate on the basis of nationality et cetera this may be anecdotal evidence but it is happening, and it is is happening because of a lack of clarity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anne-Laure DONSKOY, Representative of the 3 million group, given the exceptional nature of the circumstances in which up to 5,000,000 people find themselves and that's including a friends living in the EU, we call negotiating parties to support an early, ring fenced, legally binding separate agreement to preserving our indivisible rights as part of the negotiations under article 50. We call on the European Parliament to support this by means of a separate resolution on citizens rights.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anne-Laure DONSKOY, Representative of the 3 million group, But we would argue that there is room for manoeuvre in how the criteria are interpreted so that everyone who is currently living in the UK can gain permanent residency not just those deemed lawful before Brexit. So the issue is threefold: 1) identifying and registering EU citizens living in the UK 2) granting permanent residency to everyone including those who do not currently qualify, and who should be allowed to accrue rights and 3) as well as the preservation and guarantee of indivisible right permanently

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan DOERFL, Immigration barrister in the UK, And the problem I want to focus on is that EU nationals that acquire citizenship loose their EU rights despite an exercise of the treaty rights.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan DOERFEL, Immigration Barrister in the UK, For permanent residence a paper form it's an 85 page paper form; it's less online and nonetheless it requires citizens to list all absences from the UK since they arrived, so that means 25 years sometimes worth of absences, it's impossible to do.

SOUNDBITE (English), Charlie JEFFERY, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, What benefits do we get from this? Universities UK, the collective body of universities in the UK, did an Erasmus impact survey last year which showed that students who benefited from Erasmus exchanges have better academic outcomes, they do better in their degrees, they do better in their careers, fewer are unemployed, Erasmus graduates tend to have higher salaries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Charlie JEFFERY, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, It has certainly improved my employability as I have proven experience of living abroad. The fact that I can now speak good French, Spanish and Italian is a huge draw for employers, as British people generally have shocking foreign language skills.

SOUNDBITE (English), Charlie JEFFERY, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, The ambition for us clearly, I think as the University of Edinburgh and every university in the UK, is to maintain full participation in Erasmus as a key item in the Brexit negotiations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Leona BASHOW, British Petinioner, I fear the future without the protection of the Charter, of the Treaties and Directives. Will it be the case that no longer will I or any other British citizen be able to rely on the powerful principles of direct or indirect effect in our national courts? Will we no longer have recourse to the European Court of Justice?

SOUNDBITE (English), Anne WILKINSON, British Petitioner, Is the EU&rsquo;s final objective to say goodbye to the United Kingdom, that&rsquo;s it don&rsquo;t be or do we envisage a happy future in which the United Kingdom re-joins the European Union as a fully committed member of a fully functioning European Union? In that case I remind you of the importance of keeping the young people of the United Kingdom on board the European project. Last year the age group that was most in favour of remaining within the European Union was the group between 16 and 24, not all of them had the vote.