On the eve of an extraordinary summit on Brexit, the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, presented to the press on Tuesday 9 April the guidelines for protecting the social rights of European and British citizens in the event of an exit by the United Kingdom without an agreement from the European Union. Underlying this, the Commissioner seemed to be asking Member States to go beyond the proposals on the table to protect European citizens.
In her intervention, Ms Thyssen gave two figures: 4 million Europeans from the continent live in the United Kingdom and 1.3 million British people live on the continent. In the case of an orderly Brexit, the protection of these citizens' social rights (such as the aggregation of rights and the export of social benefits) would be “legally” guaranteed until the end of 2020 or even 2022, she explained essentially. However, in the case of an exit without agreement, uncertainty would prevail.
The Commission intends to present guidelines to Member States at the summit tomorrow to encourage them to take all the necessary measures to protect European and British citizens.
But Ms Thyssen immediately limited its scope. “These contingency measures are unilateral measures. They only cover right of UK and EU citizens in the EU Twenty-Seven. They do not and cannot cover the right of EU citizens in the UK”, she stressed. She added that the British Government had made several commitments to “politically” protect the rights of EU citizens in the United Kingdom.
In addition, the Commissioner stressed that these contingency measures did not guarantee a “uniform treatment of social rights” within the EU, as this is a Member States' preserve. And that is one of the major challenges.
According to one European source, uniformity of treatment would be possible only for the payment of pensions and health care (but not unemployment benefits), only in the case of aggregation of entitlements accrued before leaving the United Kingdom from the Union. However, here too, even if the rights are open, there is uncertainty. How will European and British citizens be treated if the United Kingdom decides not to cover the costs of exporting duties? There is a risk, explains another source, but assures that this risk is minimal.
These points will be discussed tomorrow at an extraordinary summit devoted to Brexit, which will have to decide whether it is appropriate to extend the period provided for under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to 30 June (or even to a much later date) (see other news). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)