Political reaction in EU capitals to the leaked Home Office immigration plans obtained by the Guardian has been relatively muted, in large part because the document is not official government policy.

Europe’s media commentators, however, did not hold back, variously describing the plan as an extension of Donald Trump’s immigration policies, a desperate project that would hurt the UK economy and jeopardise Brexit talks, and a sign that the British are heading for self-imposed isolation – and hard work – after Brexit.

Italy’s Europe minister, Sandro Gozi, said it was “difficult to comment … because this is a draft paper”. But he said Italy hoped the approach to free movement that was ultimately adopted would ensure EU citizens’ rights were “as open as possible, and as open as we agreed they would be”.



Detlef Seif, a CDU member of the German parliaments EU affairs committee, said that given London “doesn’t appear to have a coherent and unified line on Brexit”, the document was “worth looking at”.

But he added: “If it is a trial balloon, then I can only say it won’t work. The rights offered to EU citizens fall under these British proposals fall well short of those guaranteed under the permanent EC residence directive.”

Axel Schäfer, a centre-left SPD spokesperson on European affairs, said the proposals “look like an attempt to close the Brexiteers’ ranks. It won’t be long until reality catches up with the British public. The British pound is losing value. If the situation wasn’t so serious, you would assume you are watching a Monty Python sketch.”

The 82-page document, which says immigration should “make existing residents better off”, suggests the UK would end free movement the day Britain leaves the EU, with a two-tier system for EU citizens that would allow low-skilled migrants to stay for two years and more highly skilled workers for up to five.

In an opinion piece headlined “This is how desperate the British government has become,” the London correspondent of Germany’s centre-right daily Die Welt said the hardline course signalled by the plans “will only intensify the Brexit dilemma”.

On the one hand, wrote Stefanie Bolzen, it would inevitably “complicate the already arduous negotiations with leaders in Brussels, for whom the rights of EU citizens are the highest priority”.

But the plans would also “backfire on a legal level”, she said. “If the Brits want to curtail EU freedom of movement so drastically, they won’t get a transitional phase.” In the end, she said, the climate of insecurity could only damage the UK economy further and hit hardest those Theresa May claimed her politics were meant to favour.

The Italian daily La Repubblica said that although Britain was not proposing a wall, the call for enhanced controls and the use of biometrics, as well as the preference to be given to British workers, reflected a UK version of Trump’s “America first” pledge.

The London correspondent of France’s Le Monde, Philippe Bernard, tweeted that the UK’s plans to halt free movement as early as 2019 and allow low-qualified EU workers just two years’ residency meant Britain intended to “pull up the drawbridge” after Brexit.

2 ans de séjour maxi pour les Européens non qualifiés, passeport requis à l'entrée. Pont-levis levé après le Brexit. https://t.co/wEHB4RQ4zn — Philippe Bernard (@canalbernard) September 6, 2017

Florentin Collomp, London correspondent of the centre-right Le Figaro, pointed out on Twitter that despite the strong reaction to the plans in the UK, “this was the main objective of the vote for Brexit”.



The consequence, he said, would be that “Europeans will no longer come to the UK to work. Brits will have to pick their cabbages and wash their elderly themselves.”

The Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad said the “fierce and divergent reactions” to the leaked plans showed the extent to which “the British are divided over what their country should look like after it leaves the EU”.

The French financial daily Les Echos did not comment on the plan but said Britain was no longer “the enfant terrible of the club … but a country full of doubt”. The paper said UK-based financial institutions were “beginning to move part of their activities to the continent, foreign investment is diminishing and alarm bells are ringing”.



It warned against too much triumphalism on the part of the EU, but added that Britain was not finding it that easy to sign free-trade deals and that May had come back from her recent visit to Japan “with empty hands”.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome, Philip Oltermann in Berlin and Kim Willsher in Paris contributed to this report