(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to fight the European Union's attempts to extend protection for expats until 2021 as a condition for a transition period, saying the bloc should stick to its original cut-off date of March 2019.
Britain's leader said there should be different rights for European nationals who arrive in the U.K. before Brexit day next year compared with those who go there during the 21-month transition. Both sides agreed on the earlier date in an interim deal in December, but the EU now wants a later expiry if the U.K. is to get what the government calls the implementation period.
"When we agreed the citizens' rights deal in December, we did so on the basis that people who had come to the U.K. when we were a member of the EU had set up certain expectations,” May told reporters on a trip to China Wednesday.
She added: “This is a matter for negotiation for the implementation period, but I'm clear there's a difference between those people who came prior to us leaving and those who will come when they know the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU.”
Tight Timetable
Negotiations between the U.K. and the EU on the transition period are scheduled to begin shortly with the aim of reaching a deal by the end of March. Any longer would raise doubts over whether it brings enough certainty to businesses over what sort of regime they'll be operating under when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.
Both sides agree on the broad principles of the transition period. The U.K. will lose its say in EU decision-making but little else will change. It will remain subject to EU legislation and court decisions and have to allow EU citizens to freely live and work in Britain. Euroskeptics such as potential leadership candidate Jacob Rees-Mogg say that makes Britain a “vassal state.”
But there is disagreement over some of the detail. The EU says the U.K. was aware at the time of signing the interim deal that the citizens' rights cut-off date would move to the end of the transition. A person familiar with the U.K. negotiating position said that's not the case.
“We're doing the job people voted for, delivering Brexit,” May said. “But in doing that they didn't vote for nothing to change, and things will change when we come out of the European Union.”
Transition Issues Arise as Brexit Talks Move On - Bloomberg Intelligence
Separately, Ireland Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told an audience Wednesday at Chatham House in London that negotiations over the inclusion of financial services in the Brexit deal would be “difficult.”
“If you want the benefits of remaining dominant in the context of European financial services, well then there's an avenue that is open for you to do that, which is to remain a part of an extended single market, which facilitates that,” he said.
The U.K.'s red lines, including ending freedom of movement, means that the country can only expect a trade deal similar to the one that Canada has, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said. That means the EU position is that there will be only limited access to the bloc's financial services market, European Commission officials told diplomats in Brussels on Tuesday.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net, Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net, Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Robert Jameson
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Ian Wishart, Tim Ross, Alex Morales
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