Swedish minister Ann Linde says lack of reciprocity would be unfair and demands ‘concrete negotiating positions’ from UK

The Swedish minister for EU affairs has said it would be “unfair” for Britons to have more rights in Europe than EU citizens in the UK, as currently proposed by Theresa May.

Ann Linde warned that the UK must offer the EU reciprocity in its approach to citizens’ rights, and said Theresa May’s government was putting the final Brexit deal at risk if it did not engage in detail with the EU negotiating team soon.

Before a meeting in Londn with the Brexit secretary, David Davis, Linde said there was “a risk with such a short deadline that if you do not get the detailed position, that you can’t [go forward]” to the second phase of negotiations, on a trade deal and the relationship with Europe.

“We really need to get concrete negotiating positions from the UK. We got three more responses today, but they need to have more detail,” she said.

“We have to have reciprocity,” she added. “We cannot have a situation where Britons in Spain have a better situation than a Spanish person in the UK.” That would be “unfair”, she concluded.

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There are an estimated 100,000 Swedish people living in the UK, and Linde said Britain needed to change its position to protect their rights along with those of other EU citizens. Earlier this year, she expressed concern about the amount of xenophobia targeted at Swedes since the EU referendum.

Her comments came after the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, spoke of his frustration that the EU had issued nine position papers since the end of April, but the UK had only responded to one – the proposal on EU citizens.

Linde said “significant progress” was needed in the three areas prioritised by the EU for the first phase of negotiations: the economy, citizens’ rights and border issues.

The EU has proposed to protect all the current social, employment and residency rights enjoyed by the 1.2 million Britons settled elsewhere in the EU. Under the British proposal, EU citizens would lose some of those rights, including the right to bring in family members such as spouses or elderly relatives.

The UK proposal also offers no guarantees on reciprocal healthcare arrangements for pensioners, or protection for the estimated 45,000 Britons who commute to Europe or travel to the bloc for short-term contracts.



Lawyers have said it is unenforceable, because the UK does not want oversight by the European court of justice but has not proposed an alternative body for dispute resolution.



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Linde said the British offer to EU citizens was “a good start” but needed improvement. “There needs to be more detail,” she added. “The good thing is that there is a clear wish to see that the EU citizens can stay, but it [the proposal] is in no way ready.

“People [in Sweden] really feel that UK citizens in the EU should not be better off than EU citizens in the UK,” she added.

Speaking in January, after meeting Swedes who had experienced xenophobia since the Brexit vote, Linde said: “I am astonished at what I heard. What is worrying is that they are giving me evidence that they are not being treated like normal EU members, that they have to sign specific contracts if they want to continue with new work.” The minister said this was discriminatory under EU law.

“It is probably some years before the UK will leave the EU, but still Swedish [people] are experiencing treatment of this kind, and I find that rather shocking,” she said. “It’s a kind of discrimination you are speaking about that is not allowed if you are EU members – and Britain is still an EU member.”