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Dear Britons, here’s a couple of things I would like to remind you, if I may.
1) Contrary to some ill-chosen remarks, the EU is not robbing your rights to travel and work in the EU. Your government chose to end these rights in order to get rid of the freedom of movement.
1) Contrary to some ill-chosen remarks, the EU is not robbing your rights to travel and work in the EU. Your government chose to end these rights in order to get rid of the freedom of movement.
2) By leaving the EU, the UK government has chosen to strip its citizens of their EU citizenship, which is tied to the EU membership. Thus the rights based on EU citizenship do not apply to the UK citizens any longer.
3) By leaving the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK government has chosen to abolish the rights the non-EU citizens of Norway and Iceland. (In the case of Switzerland there are c. 120 deals and agreements forming the base of the rights of its citizens in the EU.)
4) The freedom of movement and the freedom of trade are fundamentally tied together within the EU and the EEA. The disadvantages brought upon by #Brexit is the price to be paid for ending the freedom of movement.
5) Nobody outside the UK asked the UK to end the EU based rights of the UK citizens. You voted for it. Now it just has to be dealt with.
6) Those saying that the EU treats the UK unfairly in the current negotiations, seem to held an opininon that the UK should not be treated according to the same principles than other non-EU countries. Which is a bit odd, because that is precisely what you voted for.
7) I would also like to remind that the UK was given special privileges throughout its EU membership. The UK was given exemption not to join EMU and keep using the Pound sterling instead of adopting the Euro as the UK currency.
8) In addition the UK was given discount for the GNP-related annual fees to the EU. The other EU countries contributed the missing sum. For example, in 2018, Finland’s contribution to the reduced UK fees was 127 million Euros.
9) Summing it up, by treating the UK equally to any other non-EU and non-EEA country, the EU simply respects the sovereignty of the UK. If this makes the UK government feel bad, please keep in mind that you are just 120 deals away from being the next Switzerland.
10) Hovever, all above is said with love. For I dearly love the UK, London being my home away from home for ever, Brexit or not. In the end, it might be worth considering whether or not the ending of free movement really is worth of all this. And that is not for me to say.
