Baroness Hayter: We should aim for nothing short of a continental Brexit
4 min read
Dianne Hayter on why Ministers must understand the ties that bind many younger people to Europe and reflect those views when negotiating our departure from the EU.
Today sees the last day of Lords Committee on the EU Withdrawal Bill, with the final flourish of amendments including a debate on the thorny – and not entirely resolved – issue of ‘EU Citizenship’.
Labour hears the pleas of millions who fear the loss of what they feel has been, or become their birth-right. Half a million holders of UK passports have applied for Irish passports, often by virtue of their parents’ or grandparents’ status. 30,000 people from other parts of the EU (double the numbers before the referendum) based in the UK are applying for British nationality. Along with many of own people taking up EU citizenship, including those of Jewish origin seeking German nationality due to them by virtue of relatives – some lost in the Holocaust.
Even greater are the numbers, myself included, who would love to continue to hold a purple passport – either for reasons of our emotional attachment to a European identity, or for the very pragmatic reasons of continuing their current life. Even if the withdrawal agreement is concluded allowing Brits abroad to remain in their current EU country, it won’t guarantee them continuing rights to travel and work elsewhere in the EU.
Recent debates on the Bill have included consideration of how designers, architects, models, performers, nurses, jockeys and carpenters need to move around – often as freelancers – to develop careers and enterprise. So the ache for a continued EU passport, with its ongoing right, is understandable.
The husband of a relative whose Jewish grandmother and father reached England in the 1930s took German citizenship last year – because of the country it has become rather than himself being able to work there. His sons, nephews and nieces have also since applied for German passports – albeit with a much longer wait, because of what is a colossal and unprecedented backlog.
For many in the Lords, the world that our children and grandchildren now take for granted is so much more different than that of our parents’ generation. A world of common shared experiences and values with friends, colleagues and partners from across the continent.
We can’t, of course, acquire a standalone EU citizenship. Beyond being an add-on for nationals of EU member states, it doesn’t actually exist. It is given to a national of an EU member stage by virtue of that nationality. Indeed, there is no EU passport, but – for us – a UK passport through which we have EU citizenship. Once the UK is not a member state, our EU citizenship melts away, and we can no more expect another EU member state to provide us with consulate support across the globe than they would to an American, Brazilian or Sri Lankan.
Neither should we expect one of the 27 EU member states to give everyone in the UK a passport – at least any more than we would give a British one to the 500 million living in those countries. But what we can do is continue to ensure citizens of EU countries are able to identify as ‘EU citizens’, and prioritise the ongoing movement of people around ‘our’ continent.
As our automatic right to travel and work across the EU falls away, we can expect – indeed demand of – our government to negotiate a future relationship with the EU27 that includes every possible opening to continue with such rights. Whether by boosting our involvement with Erasmus, full or associate membership of various EU agencies, or the ability to drive within and fly to the EU, Ministers must understand and represent the desire of our people to feel part of the wider land mass which surrounds our islands. Put another way, we should aim for nothing short of a continental Brexit.
Baroness Dianne Hayter is Shadow Brexit Minister in the House of Lords
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