The European Union will ask the United Kingdom to respect the rights of its citizens

The pandemic may have cooled the tensions between the European Union and the United Kingdom in the wake of Brexit, but the arrival of summer and lack of confinement may revive them again. As reported today by The Guardian newspaper, which has had access to the draft of a statement prepared by the 27, the bloc is going to ask the British Government to respect the rights of EU citizens both when making their lives in the country like the moment they try to cross their borders. All this, in addition, with the meeting next Thursday between both parties in the background, a confrontation in which they will evaluate how these first months have been since the final divorce.

According to the English newspaper, at that meeting the EU representatives will formally ask their British counterparts to honor the agreements they reached on the horn last Christmas. “The European Council calls on the United Kingdom to respect the principles of non-discrimination between Member States and to also respect the rights of citizens of the European Union,” the leaked draft can be read.

The tension is motivated, among other factors, for example by the fact that in recent weeks there have been cases of community members being illegally detained at the border to be later transferred to an immigrant center and finally deported. This is the case, for example, of a Spanish citizen who arrived in the United Kingdom stating that she wanted to look for work, something that, as of January 1, if certain requirements are not met, can no longer be done.

What you can, according to the rules set by the Home Office itself, is to enter the country for a limited period of time to, for example, carry out a job interview with a British company, spend a few days on vacation or return in the case of having the status of settled, a document that in theory should guarantee rights for life.

For this reason, the body created as a result of that agreement in extremis to control that both parties comply when it comes to respecting the rights recently acquired by citizens -that is, those of the British in the EU and the community rights in the United Kingdom- , is “actively considering” taking the first legal action against the Home Office headed by Priti Pattel.

All of this, moreover, is not new, but is part of the “hostile climate” that the Conservative Government has been practicing against immigrants in the United Kingdom for the last decade, a party strategy that dates back to the time when Theresa May still led the Home Office. The protest of the European leaders published by The Guardian can still, however, change from here to next Thursday, and in fact it is expected that this is not the only issue, but that other sources of tension are also taken into account, such as that of fishing