Free Movement of People

(asked on 29th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether it is the Government's policy to seek to preserve the existing rights of UK citizens living in an EU 27 country to (a) freedom of movement across the EU including the rights to work, run a business and provide services and (b) the recognition of their professional and academic qualifications after the UK has left the EU.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 1st February 2018

The citizens’ rights agreement reached in December is a fair and reciprocal deal that will guarantee the rights of a million UK nationals living in the EU and more than three million EU citizens living in the UK - so they can carry on living their lives as before.

We pushed hard for onward movement for UK nationals living in the EU27 during negotiations, but the EU did not agree that this was a matter for the first phase of the negotiations. We know this is an important matter for UK citizens, so we will continue to raise this issue as negotiations progress.

For those covered under the Withdrawal Agreement, we have agreed the continued recognition of qualifications where recognition decisions were received, or where recognition procedures were ongoing, before the withdrawal date. This will cover qualifications recognised under the Mutual Recognition Professional Qualifications directive, lawyers practising under host title and approved statutory auditors.

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