BRUSSELS _ Almost all 3 million European Union citizens currently in the U.K. will be able to continue living there after Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May promised, saying she wanted to offer them as much certainty as possible about their futures.
May set out the principles with which she plans to approach the question of European citizens in Britain at a dinner for EU leaders during a summit in Brussels. Her office gave an outline of her remarks. The prime minister emphasized that she didn't want to break up families or deport anyone currently in the U.K.
"The U.K.'s position represents a fair and serious offer," May said. "One aimed at giving as much certainty as possible to citizens who have settled in the U.K., building careers and lives and contributing so much to our society."
While the proposal will go a long way toward meeting what EU leaders wanted for their citizens, they're likely to object to May's insistence that questions over their rights should be adjudicated in British courts. The U.K. is also leaving open the question of the "cut-off date" from which the rights will no longer apply, saying only that it will be some time between March 29, 2017, when it began the departure process, and the date it actually leaves.
The precise detail of the proposal will be published by the government on Monday afternoon, when May makes a statement to Parliament.
The government proposal effectively divides EU citizens into three groups:
Those who have been residents in the U.K for five years before the cut-off date will be granted "settled status," meaning they'll be treated like U.K. citizens on questions of health care, education, welfare and pensions. Those with less than five years' residence before the cut-off date will be allowed to stay until they have clocked up five years' residence, and then apply for settled status. Those who arrive in the U.K. between the cut-off date and the date the U.K. leaves the EU will be entitled to a "grace period" of around two years to allow them to apply for legal status to remain.
May also promised that the application system for settled status will be streamlined "light touch" and use digital tools, in a shift away from the lengthy documents the Home Office currently asks applicants to fill out.
While the U.K.'s offer goes further than some on the EU side expected, particularly in its assurances on benefits and pensions, it's still short of what the bloc has demanded in areas such as on the need for their citizens' rights to be protected in perpetuity by the European Court of Justice and for the cut-off date to be the day the U.K. leaves the EU.
EU citizens living in the U.K. currently have more rights than British citizens when it comes to being joined by non-EU spouses and other family members. For British citizens, the U.K. requires non-EU spouses to meet a minimum income threshold, but hasn't been allowed under EU law to apply that to the spouses of EU citizens.
Whether that remains the case could become a matter for negotiation. The EU's four-page position paper on citizens' rights calls for the "same level of protection as set out in union law at the date of withdrawal of EU-27 citizens in the U.K. and of U.K. nationals in EU-27."
"We want to negotiate in a good spirit and we know that we want to continue working together with Britain," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters on the way into the summit.
