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The letter asks Tusk to add reciprocal rights for citizens to the agenda for a European leaders meeting on Dec. 15 and claims there is agreement across most EU states on the issue. Michel Barnier, who will lead negotiations for the EU, infuriated the group when he insisted talks cannot start on any aspect of Brexit until triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which formally starts the process of exiting the bloc. “No negotiation without notification,” Barnier tweeted on Nov. 21.
[...] U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants to invoke Article 50 by the end of March, which will start two years of talks on Britain’s divorce from the EU, and says the rights of residents is an issue she will seek to deal with early on. While other leaders have made it clear that formal talks cannot begin until after the article is triggered, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo on Monday said Brexit shouldn’t affect EU residents’ rights.
“Millions of U.K. citizens living across the EU, and millions of EU-27 citizens living in the United Kingdom should not be made to feel like hostages,” Szydlo wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “Our common duty should be to ensure their maximum security and prosperity, wherever they have chosen to live. That means we have to guarantee not only their right of residence but also the proper coordination of social security systems on both sides of the English Channel.”
Guaranteed Rights
Szydlo is in London on Monday with several Polish ministers for a summit designed to deepen ties between the two nations. Szydlo’s stance on Poles in Britain and Britons in the EU matches May’s stated wish to guarantee their rights. [...]
The signatories to the letter, who include Brexit campaigners such as former cabinet ministers Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and John Whittingdale, say citizens should not be used as “bargaining chips” or “cards to be traded tit for tat in a political playground.” [...]