Efforts to reassure EU citizens in the UK about their future after Brexit are “a first step but not sufficient”, a top EU official has said.
Under plans announced by Theresa May, EU nationals living in the UK for five years would get “settled status”, with access to health and other benefits.
The PM said people deserved certainty but European Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker said more was needed.
And campaigners said there were still “more questions than answers”.
Many Britons living in the EU are also worried about what it will mean for a reciprocal deal.
The settled status would give EU citizens the right to stay after the UK’s exit – due on 30 March 2019 – and get the same rights to welfare, pensions and education as UK citizens. The PM also promised to streamline the system, including doing away with an 85-page permanent residency application form.
However, no cut-off date for the package has been specified by Downing Street and further details of the plans – which are reported to also involve a two-year “grace period” for people moving to the UK after Brexit to regularise their status – will not be released until Monday.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters that the offer was “a good start” but other European leaders have said more detail is required while Mr Juncker, who represents the EU’s executive arm, said it was a “first step but this step is not sufficient”.
Anne-Laure Donskoy, founding member of the 3million – which aims to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK – said the offer was “disappointing” and “really falls short of our expectations”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “neither fair, nor really serious”.
“It is like a teaser this statement, it gives you general direction of travel potentially, but there are things in the statement that need to be unpicked.” .-BBC
