My Lords, I shall move Amendment 355B standing in my name and speak to Amendment 357ZA, also in my name, both of which are paving amendments to the substantive Amendment 358B, in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Clancarty— I mean the noble Earl—to which I will also speak. I hope that he will also speak to that amendment in a moment.
Amendment 358B states:
“None of the sections of this Act may come into force unless it is an objective of Her Majesty’s Government, in negotiating a withdrawal agreement, to secure continued EU citizenship for UK citizens”.
This amendment comes after our earlier debate on this subject area, but it is none the less worth revisiting the matter in the light of the publication of the withdrawal agreement and subsequent announcements by both the UK Government and the European Union.
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The question of the future status of the rights bestowed on UK citizens by EU membership will not disappear; rather, it will grow in both prominence and importance as negotiations progress, and, I suggest, it will assume an increasing urgency. Despite the resolution passed by the European Parliament highlighting the “strong opposition” felt by many UK citizens to the loss of their EU citizenship rights, I was disappointed to see no reference to it in the withdrawal agreement, which, if I interpret it correctly, includes reference only to UK and EU citizens who have exercised their rights or intend to exercise their rights by moving to the UK during the transition phase—no doubt the Minister can correct me if I have misinterpreted that. In successive Answers to Written Questions on the issue put down in the other place by my Plaid Cymru colleagues, the Government claim that EU treaty provisions make clear that only citizens of EU member states are able to hold EU citizenship. The line they take is that,
“when the UK ceases to be a member of the European Union, British nationals will no longer hold EU citizenship, unless they hold dual nationality with another EU Member State”.
A lot has been made of the clarity, or lack of clarity, of EU law on the status of the rights of UK citizens after we leave. However, I will focus on international law. I draw attention to the work of Professor Volker Roeben and others, based in the law department of Swansea University, which has been published. European law and its founding treaties may offer a clear interpretation one way, but the reverse is equally clear in international law, and that should not be ignored. If anything, the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties means that it is incumbent on both the UK and the EU to address this matter of future status urgently. I state this because, even if Article 70(1)(b) of the convention is interpreted in such a way that the withdrawal of a member state from the EU extinguishes the rights of individuals created by the founding treaties, international law would still require that a treaty is agreed on the future status of such rights. Does the Minister agree with that statement?
Associate European citizenship is a model that the UK could adopt and pursue, and I strongly encourage the Government to think along those lines. As well as affording UK citizens the ability to continue to enjoy the rights and freedoms they currently do, it would safeguard the dormant rights of younger generations and, perhaps most importantly, grant generations yet to be born the same opportunities from which those of us present here today have been able to benefit. It is entirely possible to pursue associate EU citizenship for UK citizens, and there are precedents from which such a scheme could draw. Interestingly, Greenland, as part of a European Union member state, left the EU, while the other part of the member state remains. I note that when Greenland left, the withdrawal agreement ensured the rights of EU citizens. EU citizenship is built on such links and is crucial not only to our economy but to the future of our young people.
Noble Lords may also like to consider the interesting situation of citizens of some of the Crown dependencies in the Channel Islands, where there is a bespoke and unique relationship. I make the point that this is all a matter of political will. I seek to know from the Minister whether that political will exists in the Government’s ranks. I raise the question in the hope that, when it comes to negotiations, a way is found to ensure that benefits are afforded equally to people whose citizens’ rights now appear to be threatened. I beg to move.