Embassy releases new Brexit meeting dates
The British Embassy in Paris has released four new dates for outreach meetings around France in November and two in December.
The meetings, which the embassy has been running for over a year now, are a chance for Britons to hear updates about Brexit directly from senior embassy figures - often including the ambassador, Lord Ed Llewellyn - and to ask questions.
The new meetings are:
- Chantilly: 7 November 2018 ()
- Aix-en-Provence: 15 November 2018 ()
- Saint-Germain-en-Laye: 19 November 2018 ()
- Saint-Malo: 20 November 2018 ()
- Annecy: 3 December 2018 ()
- Dijon: 10 December 2018 ()
This comes as the negotiations enter final days or weeks for the chance to seal a withdrawal deal between the UK and EU, including protecting the rights of Britons abroad in the EU.
If there is no deal then Britons' rights could depend on the goodwill of the UK and French governments; the French Europe Minister recently said France would consider how the French in the UK were treated when considering the position of Britons in France.
For this reason campaigners for rights of Britons are making a last ditch bid to call for 'ring-fencing' of the rights that have already been agreed in the negotiations - bearing in mind the risk of an overall exit deal failing because of other sticking points, especially how to deal with the Northern Ireland/Ireland border.
It comes also as there has been controversy in recent days in the UK after Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes said EU citizens in the UK after Brexit would face "rigourous checks" on their residency status and right to work if there was a no-deal Brexit, thought this was later clarified with a statement from Home Sectretary Sajid Javid that there would be a "reasonable transition period" because "we've just got to be practical".
- A private member's bill to end the 15-year limit on voting by Britons abroad is still in a 'committee stage' at the House of Commons, and will enter a fourth round of discussions on Wednesday November 14.
