Spain wants three-year post-Brexit transitional period 'to protect citizens'
Saturday, December 9, 2017 @ 9:54 PM
SPAIN has called for a three-year 'transitional period' post-Brexit to 'protect the half a million' Brits and Spaniards living in each others' countries.
Its government wants the transition to continue from 'Brexit day' in March 2019 until a new deal is in force, but with a deadline of three years for this to take place.
An in-house report drawn up by the Spanish government shows the results of analyses on bilateral effects of Brexit in terms of employment, trade, healthcare, tourism, justice and education, and cites the migration figures as 200,000 Spaniards living in the UK and 300,000 British nationals living in Spain.
The results will be discussed at the next Council of Europe meeting on December 14 and 15.
Foreign affairs minister Alfonso Dastis says he 'welcomes' recent developments on Brexit in which UK prime minister Theresa May has agreed to 'retain citizens' rights', settled on a sum payable to the EU in respect of Britain's liabilities, and a 'soft border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But Dastis says Spain still has a series of objectives it needs to negotiate with the UK, which includes a request for all current agreements to remain in place until at least the end of the year 2020 so as not to affect Spaniards living in Britain or Brits living in Spain.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com