Ukkram

This deal was reached on Friday.

1. British people living in the EU will continue to have the same rights as now, so long as they live there before the UK exits, presumably in March 2019.

2. That includes workers, self-employed, students, the retired and the “economically inactive citizens” of any age.

3. Your right to free or subsidised healthcare will be protected in the EU, for as long as you live there.

4. For their entire lifetime, British citizens living in the European Union will be able to have family members join them. That includes spouses, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren.

5. British people living in EU countries may in the future bring a spouse to live with them from the UK.

6. Your rights to social security, health, education, higher education, employment and running a business will also continue just as if you are an EU citizen. You cannot be discriminated against in any way.

7. There will be simple, free and streamlined procedures for claiming residency in EU countries. Countries will be “flexible” in assessing your evidence.

8. You can leave the EU country for up to five years and move back without losing your EU rights.

But...

9. It does not specify whether British citizens may move from one EU state to another and retain the same rights.

10. There may be checks of criminal records.

Loafing Along

"Sacrificed on the Alter of Trade" - British nationals in Europe


https://www.theguardian.com/politics...by-brexit-deal

macliam

David Davies seems to think he can save a few bob and you can go whistle....

Naaling

David Davies' capacity for political double speak is nothing short of amazing. He can turn any situation on its head with just a few words that have no coherent meaning at all!

captainflack

I think this agreement is virtually worthless, at least in the UK eyes. If you read the text, it confirms the UK agrees to various things *irrespective of whether it successfully negotiates a trade deal* later. Things such as the financial obligations, EU citizens rights, and so on. And especially on the Irish border - it confirms basically that the UK will keep full alignment with the EU customs union and single market rules until an agreement can be made regarding the Irish border.

And yet a day or two later, the UK backpedals, including the PM in parliament herself, and claims that it's all dependent on getting a suitable deal from the EU. And they start claiming that 'full alignment' and 'no divergence' aren't the same thing, so they can diverge from EU rules while still having 'full alignment'.

I imagine the EU must be on the verge of simply giving up and walking out now. To spend the extra time as they have done to get a deal, after the DUP fiasco (making a deal which was OBVIOUSLY not going to be acceptable to them), only to find almost immediately the UK side publicly declaring that they're going to ignore all the obligations they signed up to, or 'creatively interpret' them their own way, if they don't get the deal they want later.

I think it's getting to the stage where the EU should just say to the UK that it's not willing to talk further with a partner who is simply dishonest and slippery and unwilling to follow either the letter or the spirit of things it's only just agreed to.

mfesharne

As I understand it most if not all of these things were guaranteed to us anyway under Article 70(?) (acquired rights) of the 1969 Vienna Convention (enacted in 1980) of which the UK & Portugal are both signatories.

Bloody media seem to be whipping up hysteria for no good reason.......... again!

captainflack

And as if by magic

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ys-verhofstadt

David Davis’s claim that the UK’s concessions in an agreement to move on the Brexit negotiations were merely a statement of intent has damaged trust and will see a hardening of positions in Brussels, the European parliament’s coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, has said.

The former Belgian prime minister claimed the Brexit secretary’s comments over the weekend were “unacceptable”, and undermined confidence in the British government’s trustworthiness.

Naaling

There is a reason, but it is't a "good" one.

Rupert is planning to use the opportunities provided by Brexit to buy up British assets cheaply and expand the Murdoch Empire. His newspapers are on the front line of that campaign.