Davis: EU citizens' rights should be first on Brexit agenda
The UK seeks a "good outcome" for EU citizens living in the country and wants to solve the issue soon, the Brexit Secretary says.
Tuesday 14 February 2017 17:17, UK
The rights of European Union citizens in the UK and Britons living on the continent must be the first item on the agenda in Brexit talks, David Davis has said.
The Brexit Secretary's comments came after a leaked EU document suggested European countries could adopt a tough approach toward British nationals because of the difficulties their citizens may face acquiring permanent rights in the UK.
Mr Davis said the Government would look to do a deal to protect rights including social support and healthcare.
"We are determined to get a good outcome to protect the rights of British citizens and European Union nation citizens and to get an answer quickly," he said, speaking in Stockholm alongside Sweden's EU minister Ann Linde.
"We would have liked to have had the answer already, we would have liked to have settled this issue already."
Mr Davis said the Government would like to make the issue "the very first thing on the negotiating agenda" once the procedure starts.
"We understand that people feel uncertain and we want to take away all that uncertainty and replace it with residents' rights, social support, healthcare - all of those sorts of things," he said.
The Brexit Secretary also said the Government was on course to meet its end-of-March deadline to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which launches the formal divorce procedure.
But he said he did not see Britain doing so at an EU summit on 9-10 March, a date that has been suggested by some media because it would avert the risk of clashing with celebrations marking the bloc's 60th anniversary on 25 March.
Mr Davis said he expected some parliamentary "ping pong" when a bill granting the Government permission to trigger Article 50 comes up for debate at the House of Lords - and that Labour and Liberal Democrat peers will attempt to amend it.
The rights of some 3.3 million EU citizens in the UK will be one of many crucial points in the talks. Theresa May has repeatedly said she wants to guarantee their rights, but only if reciprocal arrangements apply to Britons.
The leaked EU document on citizens' rights, reported by The Guardian newspaper, said it will be down to each member state to decide whether British citizens are allowed to carry on living within their borders after 2019.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the document showed the "human cost of a Tory-style Brexit" and criticised what he called a "Hunger Games approach" to the negotiations.