Deal on citizens’ rights lacks full EU backing, May says

Theresa May has said her offer to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK has been snubbed by “one or two” European leaders.

She told European ambassadors in her keynote speech on Tuesday that she wanted to seal an early deal on the issue of the 3 million settled in the UK and the 1.2 million Britons in Europe, but she did not have the backing of all 27 member states.

“We want to guarantee the rights of EU citizens who are already living in Britain and the rights of Britons in other member states as early as we can,” she said.

“I have told EU leaders we could do that now,” she said. “Many of them favour such an agreement, one or two others do not,” she said.

Sky News reported on Tuesday night that Angela Merkel was one of those who did not agree, but this was not confirmed.

Campaigners on both sides of the channel said her words did not offer anything new, with some attacking her for failing to understand the anguish of families in Europe and Britain.

“I do not feel that she really grasps the fear and worry that so many British citizens in the EU have. The impression is that her thoughts were almost completely taken up with the economy and not the effect on ordinary citizens, either at home and certainly not those abroad,” said Brian Cave, one of the members of Expat Citizens Rights in EU (ECREU).

The 3 Million group which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens in the UK said it was “very disappointed” with her speech.

Founder Nicolas Hatton said May was “still in the reciprocity argument and refusing to unilaterally guarantee our rights”.

“EU citizens are living in limbo and Theresa May has done very little to reassure them today. I am very disappointed that the prime minister didn’t take this opportunity in front of an international audience to unilaterally guarantee our rights of residence and we will continue to campaign to obtain a firm guarantee before article 50. We are not bargaining chips, we are human beings,” said Hatton.

An EU source disputed Theresa May’s claim that EU leaders wanted to reach a deal “now” on the rights of EU citizens. “I am sure all want a deal on this, but as part of the negotiations,” the source said, adding that while some member states might have been prepared to do an early deal on citizens, they had stepped back “when they realised the complexity of the issue”.

Monique Hawkins, a Dutch woman who made worldwide headlines when she received a letter from the Home Office inviting her to prepare to leave the UK and the home she created with her British husband and British children, said: “The prime minister can and should unilaterally offer certainty to all of the 3 million EU nationals currently living in the UK. She could have done this as soon as she became prime minister. She can still do this without waiting for article 50 to be triggered.”

Others predicted the anguish felt by British families abroad would now deepen. Jane Golding, the co-founder of UK citizen support group Brits in Europe, who lives in Germany, said she welcomed the fact that both groups of people were seen as a priority. But she said May’s speech was likely to intensify the worry for Britons in Europe.

“She knows full well that it is within her gift to guarantee the right to remain to EU citizens now unilaterally – and she should do it because it is the right and fair thing to do. Holding this up is not a negotiating strategy and won’t improve the position for British citizens in other European countries – if anything, it may be likely to make it worse,” she said.

Dave Spokes, a Briton in France and a founding member of ECREU, said issues such as pension and healthcare rights of Britons were entirely within her power.

“This has nothing to do with EU leaders reciprocating. The UK pays them so there was nothing to stop her getting up and saying that healthcare and pensions were guaranteed and we will negotiate the rest separately. It would have taken a lot off people’s minds if she had done so,” he said.

He said only a few “financially secure UK citizens” would be able to grab a lifeboat and survive in Europe without the UK’s financial guarantees.

Under present agreements, retirees in Spain and elsewhere in the EU are guaranteed their British state pension will increase alongside inflation. This would fall away post Brexit, unless the government agrees otherwise.

Sue Wilson, from Remain in Spain, which campaigns for the rights of British people in Spain, said May had “blamed some other unspecified EU countries for her failure of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens”.

Wilson pointed out she had the power to act unilaterally and could put “hundreds of thousands of minds to rest” in Europe by removing the anxiety over the future of healthcare and pensions.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Rankin in Brussels

There was little reassurance in Theresa May’s speech to make Carla Abel feel she should return to Britain.

The 18-year-old finished school last year and has been learning German in Berlin ahead of starting university. Born to a British mother and Canadian father in Spain, the remain voter is contemplating applying for a Spanish passport to maintain her EU status – “so that I’m not in limbo anymore”.

May, who said she wanted to reach a deal on the rights of EU nationals in Britain and Britons living in Europe as soon as possible but offered no specifics, left Abel unimpressed.

“She was clearly trying to be firm, but a lot of what she said was rather vague – using words like ‘optimistic’, and ‘strong global Britain’ – it didn’t convince me that I’d be happy in Britain or that I’d feel at home there,” she said.

Also watching the speech in Berlin, Daniel Tetlow said it did not do much to reassure Britons living in Europe that their situation was secure.

Married to a German with whom he has a little girl, Tetlow, 43, a documentary producer and musician who has lived in Berlin for two-and-a-half years, said: “It was a missed opportunity that she didn’t say that EU citizens in the UK will have the right to stay. That’s a big disappointment – in the spirit of her saying ‘this is not a fight’, she might have made that magnanimous move, saying [to the other members] ‘we’ll do it, and hope you follow’, but she didn’t.”

Tetlow, a member of a group representing UK citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK, said May’s unbending stance had made him more determined to fight for his rights as a Briton living in the union.

“I’m going to see it out. I don’t intend to rush for a German passport; instead I want to fight to be able to be a Briton in Germany and to be able to work here. But according to what Theresa May said today, my position could still be threatened in terms of health insurance, the passporting of qualifications and other technicalities.” He said his fight would also be on behalf of his daughter, “to give her the same rights, or for my German wife to be able to work in the UK.”

But Bob Sleigh, 66, a semi-retired science and medical translator who has lived in Berlin since 1980, said he could understand why May had “kept her powder dry”.

However, Sleigh, who is from Manchester and voted leave, said he was concerned about his own future. “I’ll be a pensioner by the time Britain leaves the EU, and if ever anyone threatened to throw me out, I’d fall back on the Vienna convention under which people have the right to stay where they have made their lives.”

Cathy Skene, who has lived in Germany for 30 years – her entire adult life – and became a German citizen in the wake of the referendum, said listening to May’s speech had made her feel even more “desolate” than she had after the referendum.

“Personally I feel as safe as I can possibly be with my new German citizenship, but I feel desolate for the UK; all this talk of a new British empire – told to us in the tone of a teacher you don’t learn anything from – is delusional. And I feel a deep sense of anxiety and doom I haven’t felt since I was 16 and a member of Youth Against the Missiles.”

Michael Lawton, 68, who moved to Berlin 30 years ago and, anticipating Brexit, became a German citizen ahead of the vote (while also retaining his British passport) said he remained utterly unclear after the speech as to what the future status of Britons living in the EU or EU citizens living in Britain might be.

“There are many people who have made commitments to the countries they live in but who could potentially be thrown out. It is clear from now on that everything will become more restricted. That a German wanting to work in Britain, and a Briton wanting to work in Germany, will not be able to do so just like that. If, as it sounds, May wants to work on negotiating a deal where people can’t be thrown out, that’s good, but we’ll have to see.”

John Owen, 26, an Oxford University graduate of history and German who arrived in Berlin just after Christmas, said May’s speech had only reinforced his intention to try to stay living in the EU.

“I came here because I wanted to enjoy ‘freedom of movement’ while I still can,” he said. “I’m going to apply for German universities while I’m still eligible as an EU citizen. But it feels like a race against time. If May had said something today about ‘absolutely, definitely we’ll protect the rights of EU citizens in Britain’, I’d have felt more relaxed about my own situation. But she didn’t go very far on that.”