Two major citizens’ rights groups will urge the U.K. and EU Brexit negotiators to end the “extreme legal uncertainty” for citizens on either side of the Brexit divide created by the prospect of a no-deal scenario.
The two groups, British in Europe and the3million, called on the negotiators — the EU’s Michel Barnier and the U.K.’s Dominic Raab — to commit to enshrining a tentative agreement on citizens’ rights in an international treaty regardless of the outcome of the Brexit talks.
The groups’ request, in a planned open letter to the negotiators seen by POLITICO, underscores the rising anxiety over the prospect of a “no-deal” outcome to the talks.
“You jointly have it within your powers to end this nightmare immediately for over four million of us, by taking the true moral high ground and publicly committing to honoring these agreements on our rights — whatever the outcome of the rest of the negotiations,” the letter, to be signed by Nicolas Hatton of the3million and Jane Golding of British in Europe, will state.
The advocates say that recent promises by the British government to protect citizens’ rights if the broader negotiations fail are not sufficient, arguing for their rights to be protected by an international treaty.
“Contrary to what we have been promised, we are facing extreme legal uncertainty on both sides of the Channel,” they write, adding that they fear becoming “collateral damage in this volatile and dangerous political game.”