Stranded by COVID-19? Our recommendations...

We are hearing from British nationals resident in the EU who are stuck in the UK, a situation no-one needs at this time of year as transition ends.

British in Europe contacted the Commission Tuesday morning (22.12.2020). They replied late afternoon with a copy of Tuesday's Commission recommendation to the member states saying that all residents should be allowed to enter the country, along with nationals of the host state.

It's good that the Commission issued this but the bad news is that the Commission is now on holiday until 4 January and  member states can ignore the recommendation (which would not be a surprise as the member states are also ignoring the Council Recommendation from June).

To apply pressure, we propose that you do the following:

Contact the citizens' rights officer in your host country. You might also want to copy in the ambassador. Use Google to find the details.

Write to the Your Europe Advice line asking them for their help. They will most likely point you to the recommendations discussed here but they will flag these issues to the Commission and that will support our advocacy.

Contact your MEP in your host country. Tell them that the Council and Commission recommendations are being breached and that this action is in contravention of the non-discrimination clause of the Withdrawal Agreement. We recommend you start with your MEPs who are members of the UK-EU friendship group in the EP - see the attached pdf.

You may also want to consider contacting by social media given that time is of the essence. Do tag British in Europe on your tweets/posts.

Good luck and please let us know if you receive any replies from any of these endeavours.

Published 22.12.2020