Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that any agreement reached on EU citizens' rights in the UK after the UK leaves the EU will be reciprocated for UK citizens in European countries.
Answered by Robin Walker
Safeguarding the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU was our first priority for negotiations. The fair and reciprocal agreement reached and set out in the draft legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement will provide UK nationals in the EU with more certainty about their rights going forward.
The UK is putting in place the administrative arrangements to implement the draft Withdrawal Agreement on citizens’ rights in the Home Office’s EU Settlement Scheme. It is for each Member State to determine how they will implement the Withdrawal Agreement to secure the rights of UK nationals resident in their country, and we are working with Member States to understand how they will do so. We will ensure that we communicate to UK nationals living in the EU any changes to administrative procedures introduced by Member States.