What exactly defines EU citizenship after Brexit is about to be decided by an Amsterdam court. Five British plaintiffs who argue their EU rights will exist beyond 2019 want their case referred to Europe's top court.
Image: picture alliance/Photoshot/T. Ireland
Advertisement
One million Britons living in mainland Europe stand to break new legal ground on Wednesday if Amsterdam refers the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) based in Luxembourg.
The case is being backed by the lobby group Brexpats Hear Our Voice (BHOC), according to the periodical Dutch News.
The plaintiffs insist that "citizenship of the Union" introduced in the 1993 Maastricht Treaty and multiple rights fixed in EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights should exist beyond Britain's exit from the bloc in March next year.
"We've told the judge that Britons living in the Netherlands need clarity over their status as European citizens after Brexit," said their lawyer Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm.
"Politicians are negotiating with people's lives. We have a right to have some clarity, not at the eleventh hour, but now, so that we get on with our lives," said Stephen Huyton, one of the plaintiffs.
Brexit talks began in June and both sides have been frustrated at the lack of progress. DW has taken a look at key issues being debated in Brussels as the clock ticks toward Britain's scheduled departure in March 2019.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/o. Hoslet
Two phases
EU leaders agreed to negotiating guidelines during a summit in April 2017 that divided the divorce talks into two phases. Phase I, in which both sides aimed to settle the basic terms of Britain's departure, started in July and ended with an agreement on "sufficient progress" in December. Officials are now holding Phase II negotiations on the post-Brexit relationship between Britain and the EU.
Image: Reuters/File Photo/Y. Herman
The "Brexit Bill"
London agreed to a formula for calculating what it owes in its "divorce bill" to the EU in early December after months of haggling by British officials. The current EU budget expires in 2022 and EU officials have said the divorce bill will cover financial obligations Britain had committed to before triggering article 50. The final bill will reportedly total around £50 billion (€67 billion).
Image: picture-alliance/empics/D. Martinez
Citizens' rights
Both sides agreed in early December that the 3 million EU citizens currently in Britain and the 1.1 million British citizens in the EU keep their residency rights after Brexit. British courts will have immediate jurisdiction over EU citizens living in Britain. But the EU's highest court, the ECJ, can hear cases until 2027 if British judges refer unclear cases to them.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Smith
The Irish border
Britain and the EU also agreed in December that no border checks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would return post-Brexit. How feasible the commitment will be is unclear, as Britain's commitment to leaving the EU Single Market and Customs Union makes it difficult to avoid customs checks at the Irish border.
Image: Reuters/C. Kilcoyne
Transition period
Theresa May envisages a two-year transition period after March 2019. Both sides still have to hash out the details of the transition period in Phase II, including the exact end-date, whether new EU laws passed during the period will apply to Britain, and whether Britain can negotiate its own free trade deals. British officials hope to agree on the terms of the transition by March 2018.
Image: Imago
Trade
May has repeatedly said Britain will leave the European Single Market and the EU Customs Union. Leaving both could disrupt British-EU trade, but allow Britain to negotiate its own free trade deals and restrict EU migration — key demands by pro-Brexit politicians. London has said it wants to negotiate a new EU-UK trade deal during Phase II to minimize trade disruption before March 2019.
Image: Picture alliance/empics/A. Matthews
Immigration
Britain has also vowed to restrict EU migration into Britain after Brexit. However, some British lawmakers are wary that a sharp drop in immigration could lead to shortfalls in key sectors, including health, social care and construction. The EU has warned that Single Market access is out of the question if London decides to restrict the ability of its citizens to live and work in Britain.
Image: picture alliance/PA Wire /S. Parsons
Security
Recent terror attacks across Europe including a string in Britain underline both sides' support for continued security cooperation after March 2019. But access to EU institutions such as Europol and programs such as the European Arrest Warrant require compliance with EU laws. Whether Britain will still be compliant after it leaves is unclear.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/o. Hoslet
8 images1 | 8
'The forgotten many'
The director of a US firm, who has lived in The Netherlands for the past 24 years, said his three children, aged 24, 22, and 19, also faced great uncertainty. Two of them, with British passports, are studying in Britain.
"Once the UK leaves, is their European residency still valid? That's one of the questions … not yet answered," he said, adding it would "also help make clear exactly what the status is of EU citizens currently living in the United Kingdom."
Huyton said British expats were the "forgotten many," because they were not allowed to vote during Britain's June 2016 referendum, despite being British citizens and in many cases taxpayers.
Last month, British lawyer Jolyon Maugham told the Associated Press that if the Dutch judge puts questions to the Luxembourg court, "The answer the Court of Justice gives will be an answer that applies to UK passport holders wherever they live."
"I am also profoundly concerned for the 64-odd million people living in the United Kingdom who, but for this litigation, will lose the ability to exercise EU citizenship rights in the future."
Last December, the EU and British administrations reached a preliminary agreement on residency rights and benefits for the three million EU citizens living in Britain and the estimated 1.2 million British nations living elsewhere in the EU.
A joint decision passed in November 2012 by the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament — signed by Germany's Martin Schulz — said the bloc's various treaties "further strengthened the rights associated with Union citizenship."
The decision said these texts combined meant "that every person holding the nationality of a member state is a citizen of the Union, that citizenship of the Union is additional to, and does not replace, national citizenship of a member state and that citizens of the Union enjoy the rights and are subject to the duties provided for in the treaties."
Article 8 of the 2012 decision says the right to move and reside freely is "highly valued by Union citizens as a core individual right linked to Union citizenship" and demonstrates "citizens' participation in shaping the Union."
