The British Parliament is to vote on Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement on January 15 but many of the EU27 are already preparing for a disorderly Brexit. Their focus is on which rights the British people living in the European Union will have after March 29 if the UK were to leave the bloc without a deal. The first EU country to promise British citizens living on its soil will retain their full rights even in case of a no deal has been Italy.
The approximately 65,000 Britons living in the country will continue to have the right to work and live in Italy even if Mrs May’s deal is voted down by MPs.
British in Italy, the association representing Britons living in the Mediterranean country, said in a statement: “Our worst fears vanished.
“This makes Italy the first EU country to publicly declare its plans for British citizens after Brexit and to provide the reassurances we have longed for for a while.”
The Netherlands said on Monday evening it wants to give Britons living there a 15-month deadline to apply for a permanent residence request in the event of a no deal.
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If the plans announced by the Dutch Prime Minister, Stef Blok, won’t find opposition, the 45,000 British passport holders living in The Netherlands will retain the right to live, work and study in the country no matter what happens in the next three months.
Similarly, the Czech Government will soon vote on a bill granting to the 8,000 Brits living in the state the same rights as any other EU citizen until the end of 2020.
Special measures to guarantee British citizens their current rights have also been taken by Spain, as announced by Pedro Sanchez’s Government in December.
The country has become a home to approximately 310,000 UK-born people.
And France, where some 150,000 Britons live, has already envisaged that British civil servants in France retain the same status and employment conditions they had before Brexit.
Austria has on the other hand taken a tougher stance on the issue of Britons’ rights.
The 25,000 UK-passport holders living in the country are facing the loss of their residence permits in the event of a no deal Brexit, unless the country introduces a special legal regime for them – an option the Austrian Government hasn’t yet ruled out.
Austria’s interior ministry said: “It depends also on the further procedure of the British side towards European Union citizens residing there.”
At the moment, in case of Britain’s disorderly exit from the EU, Britons who want to keep living in Austria will have to apply for a new residence permit, Interior Ministry spokesman Christoph Pölzl said.
But the country is also considering the possibility to give them the option of adopting a dual citizenship, foreign minister Karin Kneissl said on Tuesday.
According to the announced plans, dual citizenship would be exceptionally granted only to three groups of people, Austrians in the UK, survivors of the Shoah and their descendants and for German-speaking and Ladin people living in South Tyrol.
(Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg)