Two days of intensive lobbying in Brussels

The BiE advocacy team were in Brussels (23-24 July 2019) with our friends from the3million to push for the ring-fencing of citizens rights whilst in London the Conservative Party elected a new prime minister. In his first few days, PM Johnson already seems to have set a crash course with the European Union, which will probably end in a No Deal and a general election (or perhaps the other way around).

The two lobbying teams had a packed programme at the European Parliament and met the newly-elected MEPs from the major political groupings: European Popular Party (Christian Democrats); the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats; Renew Europe (Liberals); Greens; United Left. They also had a very useful meeting with Antonio Tajani, ex-President of the EP and new chair of AFCO, the constitutional affairs committee, one that has particular importance for Brexit-related affairs.

The final meeting was with the European Commission's Deputy Secretary-General, Céline Gauer. She firmly stuck to the EU's well-established line by reiterating that the Withdrawal Agreement is the best way of sorting out citizens' rights. She stated that, in the case of No Deal, there could be no 'mini-deals' and thus no ring-fencing of our rights and those of Europeans in the UK.

BiE representatives: Jane Golding, Fiona Godfrey and Jeremy Morgan.