The UK Government has today released details of the funds allocated to support UK Nationals in the EU which can be read here.

BRITISH IN EUROPE STATEMENT

“BiE asked the UK government to set up a support fund for UK nationals living in the EU, EEA and EFTA states in 2018. It has been a long wait but at least contracts have now been signed with seven organisations[1] to provide registration assistance to UK nationals in this critical first year of Withdrawal Agreement implementation in the EU and EFTA region,” explains Jane Golding, Co-Chair.

These organisations will be performing a critically important role. Many lives and livelihoods, particularly those of vulnerable and hard to reach UK nationals, will depend on the advice and assistance that they provide. This will be especially true in the countries - around half of EU Member States - where UK nationals are being made to reapply in order to remain. BiE looks forward to receiving more information from the contracted organisations and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the assistance that will be provided and in which countries, although we note that not all of the twenty seven EU countries will be covered[2].

“Effective and meaningful monitoring of the advice provided will be key and we look forward to hearing about the mechanisms that have been put in place to do this over the lifetime of the contracts,” says Fiona Godfrey, Co-Chair. “In some member states, implementation of the citizens’ rights chapter of the Withdrawal Agreement will not start until late 2020 or even 2021. This will provide very little time to find the people who need to register, especially in the constitutive countries. People cannot be allowed to fall through the cracks, advice must not be wrong and mistakes must not be made: Organisations may get a second chance but hundreds of thousands of UK nationals may not. Lives hang in the balance.”