Maintaining EU-27 citizens’ rights in the UK: a Central and Eastern European Perspective. Bertelsmann Policy Brief | 12.2017

Fuksiewicz , Aleksander and Piłat, Anna and Voarino, Lugh (2017) Maintaining EU-27 citizens’ rights in the UK: a Central and Eastern European Perspective. Bertelsmann Policy Brief | 12.2017. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The United Kingdom’s (UK) decision to leave the European Union (EU) has unexpectedly created a situation of uncertainty and insecurity for almost 3.5 million EU27 nationals currently residing in the UK. This is especially the case for Central and Eastern Europeans who took advantage of the EU’s freedom of movement to immigrate to the UK in large numbers after their countries joined the community in 2004 and 2007. The numbers are significant: over 900,000 Poles, 310,000 Romanians, 185,000 Lithuanians, and 93,000 Slovaks are threatened with the loss of rights to freely live and work in the UK.1 Despite political pressure, the British government had repeatedly refused to guarantee migrants’ rights and made it a subject of political negotiations with Brussels. Uncertainty continued, with citizens’ rights being used as leverage in the negotiations between the UK and the European Commission. On December 8, December 2017, an agreement was finally reached between the negotiators of the European Union and the United Kingdom Government, just before the December 2017 European Council Summit.

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