| So the next round of Brexit talks will begin in earnest next week and by the sound of the opening salvos from both the EU and the UK they are on course to be fraught and fiery. | UK PM Boris Johnson said this week he was prepared to walk away in June if Britain wasn’t guaranteed “regulatory freedom” from EU rules and courts.
Despite that threat the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier believes a deal is possible if both sides stick to their political framework agreement.
The political declaration, which is not legally binding, sits alongside the legal divorce treaty that was also agreed in October.
France has already warned the UK it will not be blackmailed into reaching a deal before the end of the year just because Johnson has vowed not to extend the transition period.
Luckily for Britons in the EU their rights are protected by the Withdrawal Agreement so they won’t face the prospect of a no-deal in December if talks do reach a deadlock.
Nevertheless many still feal uneasy about the future in part because of the growing rancour between the two sides, but also the UK’s planned post-Brexit immigration system.
“The UK is making European immigration more difficult and much less appealing and this is exactly what the Brexiters wanted, writes Bremain in Spain’s Sue Wilson in her column this week. “But imagine if Spain decided to do the same thing?”
We continue to report on unnecessary post-Brexit problems for Brits in Europe with the latest being a student in Germany who was charged fees by a university which apparently hadn’t heard of the transition period.
“Receiving a letter wrongly informing me that I would have to begin paying tuition fees of €1,500 per semester due to Brexit wasn’t a very pleasant surprise – in fact it made me feel unwelcome in Germany,” she writes in this article here.
We also covered the surprising story this week about a UN mission being deployed to France to help out vulnerable British people secure their futures in France.
The UN’s Migration Agency is generally better known for working with refugees in war-zones and disaster-hit regions, but now the agency is advertising for staff to come and work with British people living in France. Read more here.
And there was also important news this week for anyone thinking of applying for French citizenship. The criteria around the language requirements have just got tougher and there was important news for any applicants aged over 60.
Thanks for reading and please keep in touch with any issues you may have.
