Hundreds of thousands of British expats are set to be allowed to continue living in EU member states, as the UK closes in on deals to secure the future of expats in the wake of Brexit.
Many British expats living in other European Union member states have been fearing for their futures since June’s Brexit vote.
However, it has emerged this week that the majority of European Union countries have signalled they were ready to do a ‘reciprocal rights’ deal with the UK. This would allow expats from other EU countries who are already living in the UK, to remain there after Britain formally leaves the Union.
There are an estimated 3.3 million EU nationals living in Britain, and roughly 1.2 million Brits living in the 27 other EU countries.
The EU countries with the most Britons living there are Spain (309,000), Ireland (255,000) and France (185,000). Poland has the most EU nationals living in the UK (883,000) followed by Germany (297,000), and Romania with 229,000.
Earlier this week the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. David Davies, travelled to Brussels in a bid to help “lay the groundwork” for negotiations before Britain formally triggers Brexit.
Moreover, on Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May told a conference of Business Leaders that sorting out the future of expats was one of her main priorities during the Brexit negotiations,
“I want an early agreement on the status of UK nationals in Europe and EU nationals here, so that you and they can plan with certainty,” she told business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
It is believed that the Prime Minister has been raising the issue of reciprocal rights for Britons overseas and EU nationals in this country in her talks with other leaders in recent months.
Article published 25th November 2016