UK offer on rights of EU citizens 'below expectations', claim EU leaders

The proposals, which include granting European nationals who have lived in Britain for more than five years the right to access healthcare, education and welfare services, were today described as “insufficient”, “below expectations” and “too little too late” by critics who claimed further guarantees are needed.

The Government is expected to set out further details of its position on Monday, when MPs will also use a debate on the Queen’s Speech to call on ministers to offer “unilateral” assurances on EU citizen’s continued right to remain.

A similar amendment was at one stage reported to have significant support among Tory MPs during the passage of the Article 50 Bill, and following a reduction in Mrs May’s majority it has been suggested that the new motion could pass.

Defending the UK’s proposals in the wake of a two-day European Council meeting on Friday, the Prime Minister described it as a “a fair and serious offer”.

Speaking in Brussels, she told reporters: “It gives those three million EU citizens in the UK certainty about the future of their lives and we want the same certainty for the more than one million UK citizens who are living in the European Union.”

However, in a separate press conference conducted just minutes before, EU Council President Donald Tusk had dismissed the plans as “below expectations”, adding that they risk “worsening the situation of citizens”.

“It is obvious that this is about reducing the citizens’ rights... Our role in the negotiations is to reduce this risk,” he said.

The British offer would see EU nationals who have been in the UK more than five years the right to claim a new “settled status” entitling them to the same rights as full British citizens to healthcare, education, welfare and pensions.

Those who have been in the UK for a shorter time would be able to stay on until they hit the five-year threshold, while others who arrive after a cut-off date will be given a “grace period” to regularise their immigration status.

However, this deal will only be up for grabs on the condition that the remaining 27 EU members states agree a reciprocal arrangement for British citizens living abroad. This has led to fresh accusations that the Government is using people as “bargaining chips”.

Not all European leaders were critical of the UK offer, with both the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat describing it as a “good start”.

However, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said there were still “thousands of questions to ask” about Mrs May’s proposals, while the Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said they did not cover the situations of many EU citizens in the UK.

Labour shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said the offer was “too little too late”, and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said it leaves “millions of people still facing unanswered questions”.

The Government is expected to set out its full position on citizens’ rights in a paper on Monday.

This will coincide with a Queen’s Speech debate on Brexit and foreign affairs, with opposition MPs tabling an amendment calling on Mrs May to “unilaterally confirm that EU nationals living in the UK can retain their right to remain”.

Writing in the Evening Standard on Friday, the former Chancellor George Osborne suggested that the loss of a Conservative majority in the Commons makes it “likely” that the motion “could be carried”.