European governments are being urged by Brussels to take a “generous” approach to protect the rights of 1 million Britons living in the European Union if the UK crashes out of Brexit talks without a deal.

The commission called on governments to grant temporary residence permits to British nationals so people have time to make applications to secure their long-term status, as it set out a no-deal planning paper on Wednesday.

The EU has already promised that British people on short visits will be exempt from visas, as long as the British government reciprocates for EU nationals.

The British government has pledged to uphold the rights of 3.5 million EU citizens to live and work in the UK, even in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but some existing rights would disappear, for example rights that allow elderly parents to come and live with their grown-up children in the UK.

With 100 days to go until the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, the EU set out no-deal plans in 14 areas including aviation, customs, financial services and road transport, but there are major omissions, including the Irish border.

Privately EU diplomats think there would have to be controls to protect illegal or non-compliant goods entering the European single market, once the frontier becomes the land border between the UK and the EU. The obligation on Ireland to ensure border controls is implicit in the latest no-deal paper, which notes that member states must be ready to enforce the EU customs code, the rules on goods entering the bloc.

The paper also repeats an earlier proposal for continuing EU funds to support peace in Northern Ireland.

The British in Europe campaign group said British nationals in the EU were facing “a rough landing” in the absence of a deal. Guaranteeing residency rights and issuing documents by 30 March would be a “massive and overwhelming task in some countries”, said the group’s co-chair, Jane Golding.

An EU official said the only “proper way” to protect citizens’ rights was through the draft withdrawal agreement, declining suggestions that the citizens’ part of the deal could be ringfenced.





The latest measures fall far short of the “managed no-deal” or mini-deals that Brexit supporters hoped for. The measures “will be temporary in nature, limited in scope and adopted unilaterally by the EU”, the commission said, to underscore it would make decisions in the EU’s interests.

Measures include:

British airlines would have the right to fly point to point, eg London to Paris and back, but would lose rights to fly between EU airports.

EU banks and financial institutions can continue to clear derivatives in London for one year, a step described by the City of London corporation as “vital clarity”, while it lamented the absence of steps to address the “significant risks to data transfers” and protect other contracts.

In a softening of approach following pressure from EU governments, British trucks can continue bringing goods into the EU until the end of 2019, as long as the UK grants equivalent rights to EU lorry drivers.

The emergency plans will not apply to the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, reflecting the limited nature of the measures, which are done to secure EU interests.

The commission warned member states not to strike bilateral agreements with the UK that would “undermine the [treaty] ratification process” and risk creating inconsistent rules that may clash with EU law.

The measures were an exercise in “limiting damage”, said Valdis Dombrovskis, one of the European commission’s vice-presidents. The plans “cannot replicate the benefits of the withdrawal agreement and certainly cannot replicate the benefits of the EU membership”, he added.

The EU plan comes a day after the British government announced that 3,500 troops would be on standby as part of the UK’s no-deal planning, which also includes reserving space on ferries to ensure supplies of food and medicine.

The prime minister is under pressure to abandon her painstakingly negotiated withdrawal agreement from Brexit supporters, who argue that no deal would be a bearable, or preferable, option.

The international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, has called for “a managed glide path” that would mean the UK paid the EU £20bn – half the estimated obligations – in order to secure a two-year transition before leaving without a trade deal and falling back on World Trade Organization rules

EU officials regard this approach as fanciful, because the offer of a transition period is part of the withdrawal agreement, which includes a settlement on money, the Irish border and citizens’ rights.

Reflecting this scepticism, the UK’s former envoy to the European Union, Ivan Rogers, has said the EU will not offer substitute mini-deals to smooth Britain’s EU exit, if the government repudiates the Irish backstop. “The EU is secure in the knowledge that the alternative of jumping out with ‘no deal’ is, for all the tedious and pointless bravado, the last thing the UK wants to do, because the asymmetrical economic self-harm it would inflict,” he said in October.

The British government continues to search for assurances on the temporary nature of the Irish backstop, but EU officials have said there is nothing in the diary. “What would be the point anyway – there is nothing to talk about”, a senior official said.