Put yourself forward to be a member of the EU Citizens’ Panel.
Many members of the Liberal Democrats will have been horrified to hear about the treatment of EU citizens arriving in the UK, as reported in the Guardian, Politico and other newspapers.
Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are cases of European citizens who have lived among us for many years suddenly finding themselves unwelcome with questions being raised about their entitlement to healthcare and even school places for their children. This was not supposed to happen. EU citizens were told “nothing would change” after Brexit and it was one of the negotiating positions of the European Commission during the withdrawal negotiations. The principle set out in the Withdrawal Agreement was that those Europeans living in the UK at the end of the transition period would continue to maintain their rights. It is simply not happening.
The Withdrawal Agreement set up an Independent Monitoring Authority to monitor the implementation of the citizens rights aspects and its website can be found here.
The Authority is now looking for members to join its Citizens’ Panel to support the work of the authority. This is an excellent opportunity for members of our party who also hold another nationality to get involved and support our fellow citizens. Applications close June 11 (or earlier) and can be made at this link.
Please encourage others to get involved.
* Robert Harrison is a board advisor for several venture backed companies. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Physics as well as being a qualified patent attorney. He is currently Chair of the Liberal Democrat European Group as well as Treasurer of LibDems in Europe.
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2 Comments
I did hear on the radio, a government advertisement for the 30th June 2021 deadline for application to the EU Settlement Scheme, although I admit to having only heard the one.
Given the fallout from Brexit, due to the UK government shamelessly making claims that it knew hand not and would be agree to, I’m a little surprised that any EU national(*) settled in the UK won’t have put an application in by now – just to be sure.
(*) By any I include people who have been settled in the UK since the 1960’s or earlier as it could impact pensions and care provision.
I volunteered with Settled and helped a few fellow EU citizens jump through these hoops.
Some of the less know features is that unless a relative that could suddenly become dependent has also obtained settled status (e.g. one´s elderly parents living in the EU), in case they become dependent (e.g if one parent dies) it would take months to try to obtain right to family reunion…
The article seems to imply that there are no Libdem members that are only EU citizens? “or members of our party who also hold another nationality to get involved and support our fellow citizens”
There is a general issue around representation of EU citizens in the UK, not just because of loss of voting rights by most nationalities and specially the ones that are more numerous but because in the UK when people look at who to engage with in Europe Germany and France come to mind. The EU expat communities in the UK are more than 50%, probably more than two thirds from Polish, Romanian and Portuguese citizens (based on the 5.4 million registered).