INDIVIDUAL COMPLAINTS - ENFORCEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

As BiE is now in the process of winding down, we want to make sure that our members have as much information as possible about how they can enforce their individual rights under the Withdrawal Agreement going forward, and where they can obtain advice or make complaints if they think that their rights are not being respected or implemented properly.

Below is a short overview of the different options and more detail is set out on the EU’s website about them.

General information on your rights under the Withdrawal Agreement can also be found here.

National Routes

The first port of call would be the authority that made the decision in the country where you live but there are various ways of challenging their decision if you think that it is incorrect. This does not need to involve going to court as there is also a network of national and regional ombudsmen across the EU, as well as a national equality organisation.

Advice

As the Withdrawal Agreement largely mirrors EU law on the rights of EU citizens as set out in the Free Movement Directive 2004/38, the best sources of advice on its application and implementation are to be found at EU level, although most BiE national groups remain open for the foreseeable future and can also help.

The two main sources of advice are:

• Your Europe Advice  and
• SOLVIT

For more information on both, see the first link above.

In addition, you can:

• write to the relevant European Commission department e.g. DG HOME, DG EMPL, etc. or
• contact your MEP in the European Parliament.

Complaints (European Commission) and Petitions (European Parliament)

Finally, you can also submit a complaint about your problem to the European Commission or petition the European Parliament concerning it. We have downloaded and attached the document on complaints to the European Commission here but you can also download the complaint form yourself from the EC website (again, see the link about for all the links to the relevant pages of the EU website).

Published: 2 March 2022