Before being invited on 29 January to ratify the draft agreement on the UK's withdrawal from the EU, MEPs will take the opportunity next week in Strasbourg to send a final message on respecting citizens' rights during the transition period and beyond.
A resolution will be voted on 15 January and a debate will take place on Tuesday 14 January.
Parliament’s resolution seeks to highlight "the many issues that citizens (both EU citizens residing in the UK, numbering 3.2 million, and UK citizens - 1.2 million - residing in the rest of the EU) could face after the UK's withdrawal from the EU", says the Parliament.
The text of the resolution deals with the part of the withdrawal agreement dealing with citizens' rights. The group leaders behind the resolution, from the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups, together with the Parliamentary coordinator on Brexit, Guy Verhofstadt, stress that the withdrawal agreement, the main elements of which they recall (e.g. continuity of social rights for citizens and their close families), contains "fair and balanced" provisions. "Full implementation of the provisions of the agreement is essential" in order to protect the persons concerned, their families and their social security rights in the long term.
However, the Parliament expresses its concerns, in particular about the permanent resident status introduced by the UK government and the "recent and contradictory announcements concerning EU27 citizens in the UK who do not meet the deadline for applying" for this status. The Parliament is of the opinion that greater certainty and a greater sense of security would be generated "for EU-27 citizens in the UK if they received a physical document as proof of their right to reside in the UK after the end of the transition period". The text thus lists several practical modalities to be clarified.
Link to the resolution: https://bit.ly/2Nfdg3b (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)