Brexit Takeaways

Over eight months after the referendum in the UK on 23 June, it is still unclear what will happen to the rights of the estimated 3.3 million Europeans living in the UK and to the 1.2 Britons living elsewhere in the EU. ECAS believes that, in order to make rational choices and exercise their rights, citizens need to be provided with evidence-based information on which they can rely. Only by knowing in depth the different options available will they be able to back the best possible deal when negotiations start and assert their rights once an agreement has been reached.

ECAS has joined efforts with three other partners – New Europeans (UK), the European Disability Forum (BE) and the EU Rights Clinic– to produce a thorough and objective analysis which considers how citizens’ rights will be impacted under different Brexit scenarios.  Using the study as its starting point, the project will pursue a three-fold objective:

• General awareness-raising: To raise awareness about the different Brexit options and their implications for the nearly 4.5 million citizens who will be most affected by the outcome of the negotiations
• Information to professionals: To inform associations working directly with citizens about the likely impact of Brexit under the different scenarios to enable them to help citizens to better assert their rights
• Campaigning and advocacy: To advocate for the best possible outcome for citizens

ECAS is the coordinator of this project, which consists of three sets of activities:

• Online and offline information campaign to disseminate the study’s findings and rally citizens’ support along key messages that will be addressed to policy-makers

• Targeted advocacy towards key people who will be involved in the negotiations from the EU and the UK side

• Series of national debates to discuss the findings of the study and  build a coalition of supporters of a citizen-centric deal to put pressure on decision-makers to listen to citizens’ concerns

Planned events:

• 20 March 2017: Session at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Brexit and on Freedom of Movement
• 20 March 2017: National workshop in London focused on the impact of Brexit on the rights of disabled people (Venue: Resource for London)
• 28 March 2017: National workshop in Belfast (Venue: Queen’s University)
• 25 April 2017: National workshop in Gibraltar
• May 2017 (date tbc): Session with the London Assembly Brexit Group
• 20 June 2017: Final conference in Brussels

The national events in Northern Ireland and in Gibraltar will be organised with the support of Gibraltar Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Northern Ireland.