British group wants to obtain EU passport rights

European Union - Jean-François Badias

Guy Verhofstadt and Jean-Claude Juncker

A NUMBER of British citizens, especially those with links to European Union members are worried about their future ability to live, work and travel within the EU once Britain has left, possibly as early as 2019.

They are therefore encouraging those who want to keep access to the EU member states open to consider signing a petition to the European Commission requesting that it considers the granting of EU passports to those who want them.

The European Union citizens’ initiatives allow for pressure groups to request a debate on different proposed courses of action, but any petition does require one million signatures from those individuals who meet voting criteria with the proviso that signatures come from at least 25 per cent (seven) of the countries in the Union.

Whilst the EU is not a country and therefore cannot bestow citizenship, it does have the possibility to issue EU passports which it does for some diplomats and EU officials and it is the argument of those behind the petition that this could be extended to protect British citizens.

One week into the campaign, the petition which can be viewed at http://choosefreedom.eu/ had attracted less than 12,000 signatures but organisers believe that even if they fail in their bid, they will have succeeded by drawing the attention of the Commission and Parliament to the wish of the many who don’t want to cut their ties with the EU.

The recently appointed EU chief Brexit negotiator and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has already indicated that he may be in favour of some form of “associate citizenship” for British passport holders, but it is debatable whether it would be possible to implement this.

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Comments


    • Drew Edgar

      20 February 2017 • 22:13

      What utter hysterical rubbish.

      Citizens of some 50 countries enjoy visa free access to the EU nations.

      Albania
      Antigua & Barbuda
      Argentina
      Bahamas
      Barbados
      Bosnia & Herzegovenia
      Brazil
      Brunei Darussalam
      Canada
      Chile
      Colombia
      Costa Rica
      Dominica
      El Salvador
      Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
      Grenada
      Guatemala
      Honduras
      Hon Kong SAR
      Israel
      Japan
      Macao SAR
      Malaysia
      Mexico
      Moldova
      Montenegro
      Nicaragua
      New Zealand
      Palau
      Panama
      Paraguay
      Peru
      Republic of Korea (South Korea)
      Saint Kitts & Nevis
      Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
      Samoa
      Serbia
      Seychelles
      Singapore
      Saint Lucia
      Taiwan
      Timor-Leste
      Tonga
      Trinidad & Tobago
      United Arab Emirates
      United States of America
      Uruguay
      Vanuatu
      Venezuela

    • JoshB

      21 February 2017 • 13:42

      @Drew Edgar, that’s visa free access to enter those countries. It’s a very different picture and far more complex for people wishing to reside or work in many of the EU countries – which each have their own individual rules (as does the UK…it’s failure

    Comments are closed.