MEPs: We will block Brexit deal if EU citizens don't get improved offer

The majority of MEPs in the European Parliament have said they would be willing to veto the Brexit deal unless the UK’s “damp squib” of an offer to EU citizens is improved.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, said the current proposal “carries a real risk of creating second-class citizenship” in an article signed by parties from across the floor.

He said that the offer by Theresa May, if implemented, “would cast a dark cloud of vagueness and uncertainty over the lives of millions of Europeans.”

Writing in the Guardian, Verhofstadt said that while the EU parliament “accepts that the Brexit decision was a democratic choice” they “were never convinced Brexit would be a positive development economically: certainly not for the standing of Europe and the UK in the world and, most importantly, not for citizens.”

He added: “The European parliament will reserve its right to reject any agreement that treats EU citizens, regardless of their nationality, less favourably than they are at present.

“This is a question of the basic fundamental rights and values that are at the heart of the European project.”

The European Parliament will have a final say on the Brexit deal, the article notes, after Brexit negotiations conclude before the end of March 2019.

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In the piece, the MEPs said May’s proposal even contradicted promises made by the Leave campaign.

The article was co-written by Manfred Weber, chair of the European People’s party group; Gianni Pittella, chair of the Socialists and Democrats group; Gabi Zimmer, chair of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left group; Ska Keller and Phillippe Lamberts, co-chairs of the Greens-European Free Alliance group; Elmar Brok, Roberto Gualtieri and Danuta Hubner, members of the Brexit steering group.

A UK government spokesman said: “We have always said we want a reciprocal arrangement that allows EU citizens to continue to live their lives in the UK broadly as they do now, which is why we set out our proposal to guarantee their rights with a new ‘settled status’.”

About 3.2 million people living in the UK in 2015 were citizens of another EU country — about 5 per cent of the UK population.