The European Parliament had harsh words for the U.K. | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images European Parliament slams UK’s Brexit stance on citizens’ rights Report uses red, yellow and green symbols to show how well rights would be protected. There’s a lot of red.

The European Parliament on Tuesday sharply criticized the U.K.'s proposals on citizens' rights after Brexit. MEPs said London would not sufficiently protect families from being divided by residency restrictions, would cast EU citizens living in Britain into a sea of legal uncertainty, and would create a tangle of unnecessary red tape, according to a report by the Parliament's Brexit steering group.

The report, prepared by MEPs closely monitoring Brexit and obtained by POLITICO ahead of its official public release, offers a deeply pessimistic assessment of the negotiations between the EU and the U.K. on an issue where both sides thought they would quickly find common ground.

More than 3 million EU nationals reside in the U.K., while roughly 1.2 million Brits live in the 27 other EU countries. Both Brussels and London have insisted that protecting the rights of these people, particularly in regard to residency and employment, is among their top priorities in the Brexit talks.

Brussels and U.K. negotiators have, however, reached a stalemate, with the EU insisting on a continued role for the European Court of Justice when it comes to rights issues after Brexit, and London insisting that leaving the EU means British courts must reassert their jurisdiction.

The report, a side-by-side comparison of the EU and U.K. positions on citizens rights, comes days after the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned London not to underestimate the role of the European Parliament, which must give final approval to any withdrawal agreement.

The analysis uses stoplight-style color coding to judge areas where citizens' rights are protected (green), areas where clarification is needed (yellow) and danger zones where rights are likely to be put at risk (red). The chart was marked red for more than one-quarter of the 69 identified rights issues.

On the question of protections for family members, the report stated: "The U.K. position is clearly an unacceptable retrograde step for EU citizens compared to the current situation. The more restrictive criteria will drastically undermine current rights of EU citizens in relation to bringing children and spouses [to Britain]. This includes the right for EU citizens' non-EU spouses to join them after the withdrawal date."

The European Council has said that "significant progress" must be made on the core withdrawal issues — citizens' rights, the financial settlement and the Irish border — before the talks can move on to the next phase and explore a potential future relationship.

The U.K. wants these discussions to take place at the same time, saying many of the withdrawal questions can only be answered by taking into account the contours of the future arrangement.

The document says negotiators must deal with the role of the European Court of Justice because progress on its oversight of citizens' rights will be “essential” in determining "if sufficient progress has been achieved in this area.”

The Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, told MEPs on Monday that the institution would draft a new resolution “on the different elements of the negotiations” by the end of September with a view to having it passed before the fifth round of talks, and before October, when the European Council will decide if "sufficient progress" has been made.