The European Commission has allowed a group to launch a petition calling for permanent EU citizenship despite the probability that UK nationals will lose it after Brexit.
The proposed petition on Permanent European Union Citizenship is to be registered on July 23 as a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a method for changing EU law, the Commission announced.
The organisers of the ECI cited Brexit as the reason for submitting the petition and the future possible loss of EU citizenship and rights by UK nationals.
“The main objective of the proposed initiative is to guarantee that European citizenship and its associated rights cannot be lost once they have been attained,” the Commission said.
“The organisers cite in particular the context of Brexit and the future loss of EU citizenship and rights to UK citizens,” it added.
A Commission spokesperson said that the decision to register the initiative concerns only the legal admissibility of the proposal and that it had yet not analysed the substance of the petition.
Petitioners will need to get a total of at least one million signatures that includes residents in at least seven EU nations.
The Commission can then decide either to back the request or not, and in both instances would be required to explain its reasoning.
The organisers say in the text of the petition that it aims to "uphold the right of Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of member states under objective conditions of freedom and dignity and to safeguard citizens of the Union from use as bargaining chips in negotiations under Article 50..."
It requests the Commission "submit a proposal to retain the rights of EU citizenship for all those who have already exercised their freedom of movement prior to the departure of a members state leaving the Union, and for those nationals of a departing state who wish to retain their status as citizens of the union."
The organisers of the move which includes seven nationals from Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Greece and Belgium say a separate passport "might be issued as a consequence of this" if the suggestion is approved.
The organisers say: "Retaining European Citizenship aims to appeal to all citizens of the European Union. Citizenship - and the rights and responsibilities that go with it - should not so easily be stripped away from European citizens.
"We are concerned with those who wish to retain their citizenship, with EU nationals in the UK who face an uncertain future as a result of Brexit, with UK nationals residing in EU countries and with all those who want to defend their citizenship."
EU citizenship guarantees freedom of movement in the EU and other rights
Brits were expected to lose their EU citizenship after Brexit is in effect, either in March 2019 or at the end of the transition period in December 2020.
EU citizenship would not replace British nationality but would be additional to national citizenship.
It would grant specific rights such as the right to travel and live anywhere in the EU and the right to vote and stand as a candidate in European and local elections where they are living.
It would also allows EU citizens to get diplomatic protection and consular help from any EU country wherever they are in the world, even if their own country does not have a local embassy.
The petition asks that people who wish to retain their EU citizenship after Brexit be allowed to do so.
The UK is on course to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 - two years after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the exit process by invoking Article 50.
And Westminster has been adamant that free movement would end at the end of the transition period in December 2020.
In a parliamentary answer on the citizenship question, Lord Ahmad of the Foreign Office said "when the UK ceases to be a member of the European Union, British nationals will no longer hold EU citizenship, unless they hold dual nationality with another EU member state".
Lord Callanan of the Department for Exiting the European Union said retaining EU citizenship for Britons post-Brexit had not been ruled out, but it "would involve changing treaties". "The other side [EU negotiators] has shown no interest whatever in doing it," he added.
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