Collectives vow to keep fighting to protect citizens’ rights in Brexit deal

Collectives vow to keep fighting to protect citizens’ rights in Brexit deal

Dec 20, 2019 | Articles, News

As Britons living in Spain and across the EU27, as well as EU citizens living in the UK, come to terms with the reality of Brexit following last Thursday’s election, groups representing them are beginning to plan for the future.

Far from giving up, collectives including Bremain in Spain, British in Europe and The Three Million, which represents EU citizens in the UK, issued statements to assure followers that they will be continuing to campaign on their behalves.

British in Europe and The Three Million issued a joint statement in which they stated, “We will renew our campaign for both the UK and all the EU27 to automatically guarantee our rights.”

While Sue Wilson, chair of Bremain in Spain, which is part of the British in Europe umbrella group, said, “We must now accept that the UK will start the process of leaving the EU on 31st January, unless there’s a Christmas miracle.”

A statement issued by the group went on to say, “This is not the end of the road for Bremain. The nature of our fight will change, but our goals and our ethos will not. We still believe, and always will, that the UK’s place is at the heart of the EU.”

Anne Hernández, president of Brexpats in Spain, which represents people regardless of their views on Brexit but stands to protect people’s rights, said she was personally “resigned” to Brexit but added, “With all my determination to get the best possible outcome for us as citizens in the EU.” Hernández said, “We shall be needing the support of Spain and I am doing all I can, as I have been from the very beginning since the referendum, to reciprocate their help.”

Taken from The Sur

Sue Wilson Writes: If Brexit is the ‘will of the people’ then let’s test it

Sue Wilson Writes: If Brexit is the ‘will of the people’ then let’s test it

Oct 29, 2019 | Articles, News, Sue Wilson Writes

#FinalSayMany British citizens from Spain joined over a million marchers at the #PeoplesVote rally: a day of solidarity, strength, good humour and determination. A day we will proudly recall, in years to come, with the words “I was there”.

For those of us fighting to stay in the EU, it will be remembered as another significant day in which the prime minister, Boris Johnson, was prevented by parliament from rushing through his damaging Brexit deal.

On Thursday October 17th, at the EU summit, Johnson unexpectedly agreed terms for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The shock of the 11th hour agreement was followed by news that parliament would vote on the deal on “Super Saturday”, with a view to leaving the EU on October 31st, should it pass. The votes were too close to call as to whether the deal would pass.

Thanks to an ingeniously simple but effective amendment by Sir Oliver Letwin, Johnson withdrew the planned vote on the deal. The Letwin amendment, described as an insurance policy to prevent a last minute “accidental” no deal, passed by a majority of 16.

The news of this monumental defeat for the government was greeted with huge cheers from the crowds in Parliament Square. With the result of this vote, and because of the Benn Act, Johnson would be forced to write to the EU requesting an extension.

Read full article in The Local

 

Brits in Spain get ready for Brexit, with one eye on the UK’s new deal with Brussels

Brits in Spain get ready for Brexit, with one eye on the UK’s new deal with Brussels

Oct 29, 2019 | Articles, News

The announcement on Thursday of a last-minute deal between the UK and the EU came as many British residents in Spain rushed to complete their paperwork to prepare for Brexit.

The images of Boris Johnson’s handshakes with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other EU leaders in Brussels do not mean that British residents in Spain can stop fearing a no-deal exit.

As Sue Wilson, chair of the organisation Bremain in Spain, points out, the deal still has to be passed by parliament. “The only way this will gain support in Westminster is if it is attached to a confirmatory referendum,” she said.

The president of the Costa del Sol-based organisation Brexpats in Spain, Anne Hernández, also expressed her doubts that Boris Johnson would get the support of MPs to pass his deal onSaturday.

Protecting the rights of British residents in Spain is the principal objective of Hernández’s organisation and she pointed out that the part of the new deal related to citizens’ rights has not changed since Theresa May’s deal.

“So we are at least mentioned and to some degree covered but quite how covered I am yet to see,” Hernández told SUR inEnglish on Thursday.

Meanwhile Brexpats representatives are on their way to 10 Downing Street to hand in their petition to demand that citizens’ rights be ring-fenced ad infinitum, regardless of whether the deal gets through or not.

“We moved here understanding the Ts & Cs and now they are all changed. To say pensioners access here to healthcare can only be guaranteed until 31 December 2020 is cruel; many elderly, lonely, confused and infirm are worried sick,” Hernández said.

Full article in The Sur

 

 

 

‘This is an exciting time’, UK minister tells Brits in Spain as Brexit looms

‘This is an exciting time’, UK minister tells Brits in Spain as Brexit looms

Oct 17, 2019 | Articles, News

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has written an open letter to anxious Brits in Spain telling them that “this is an exciting time” as he urges them to prepare for Brexit.

Dominic Raab has penned a letter to UK nationals in Spain in which he tells them how they should be preparing for Brexit as the UK government gets ready to deliver the “will of the British people” on October 31. 

His letter reads like a set of demands for Brits in Spain – “you’ll need”, “you must”, “you should” – in return for only vague promises about UK nationals’ rights in their host country post-2020. 

Although Raab assures his target audience that in the event of a no-deal Brexit they will continue to have access to healthcare in Spain “exactly as you do now, until at least 31 December 2020 if you are an S1 form holder”, there is no mention of the worry and anxiety that’s been caused to them over the past three years, or what is likely to happen to their healthcare after that date. 

Instead the UK Foreign Secretary repeats much of what’s already been announced by the British Embassy in Spain, choosing to round off his impersonal letter by saying

“This is an exciting time, but also one of unprecedented change”. 

“We’re getting ready for Brexit on 31 October, and I would urge you to do the same”.

Sue Wilson of Bremain in Spain has responded to Raab’s tactless comments by telling The Local: “Brexiter Raab might think this an exciting time, but I can assure you, we do not!

“More appropriate adjectives to describe our assessment of the current state of play would be “terrifying” or “unsettling”. Promising that our rights and benefits are protected for a limited period does not provide reassurance. Rather, it has Brits in Spain worrying what will happen when that period expires?

“Those hoping for a deal, any deal, to get us out of this awful limbo, are now starting to realise that even a Brexit deal will not see the end of this awful uncertainty”.

Raab even found the time to praise the “the largest information campaign in British history” – the Get Ready for Brexit  campaign – as if to imply that this was of importance or helpful for UK nationals in Spain who still don’t know what their future holds.

Read Dominic Raab’s full letter in The Local

 

 

Británicos en España: nerviosos, confundidos y con menos dinero por el Brexit

Británicos en España: nerviosos, confundidos y con menos dinero por el Brexit

Oct 17, 2019 | Articles, News

“Muchos hemos visto cómo se reducían nuestros ingresos, y algunos no saben cómo van vivir”, cuenta Susan Wilson, jubilada y residente en Alcocebre (Castellón) desde hace 12 años.

Susan -como muchos otros británicos que viven en España- depende de su pensión, procedente del Reino Unido y que se ha visto reducida en un 18 por ciento desde el referéndum del Brexit, por la caída de la libra. Cree que los más vulnerables son los que reciben una pensión del Estado británico, y conoce “personas que se ven obligadas a tomar decisiones financieras difíciles porque los ingresos que tenían hace tres años van a verse reducidos aún más”.

“Una gran parte de los británicos que reside en España son pensionistas; hasta ahora el gobierno británico les actualiza cada año la pensión, pero es posible que no lo siga haciendo”, dice Neil Hesketh, que vive en Málaga, y donde reside desde hace 17 años. Neil vino a España porque “quería vivir en un clima diferente” y encontró al principio trabajo en marketing y en una inmobiliaria. Explica que “hay jubilados, mayores -con problemas de salud- que están preocupados con el riesgo de quedarse sin cobertura sanitaria después del Brexit”, y “están un poco asustados, todos corriendo para inscribirse en el registro de ciudadanos europeos” para no quedarse sin cobertura sanitaria. A día de hoy el principal problema es “la capacidad de las comisarías para aceptar a todas las personas que quieren citas para inscribirse; están tardando en dar citas”, señala Neil, aunque reconoce que tanto la embajada del Reino Unido como el Ministerio de Interior español están haciendo todo lo que pueden.

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