http://news.sky.com/story/britons-co...plans-10672332

Sounds good for me. The ideal solution for the Remoaners!?

How many Remoaners will actually pay though? me thinks not as many as people think.. 15 to 20 million unhappy with Brexit? not a chance !!

I'd love for this to happen, so the Remoaners can be exposed as all smoke and mirrors.

We had a thread on this a little while back.

I think the word is could

Guy Verhofstadt has no power or ability to offer any such thing.

He freely admits this himself in the interview :

Mr Verhofstadt, leader of the liberal bloc of MEPs in the Parliament, admitted there would be opposition from MEPs who “think it is too easy” to allow Britons to choose citizenship.

He added: “I don't know if it will fly or not – there are big differences of view here in the Parliament.” Some MEPs asked, “why stay in the EU if your citizens can have the advantages of European citizenship”.

There would be many people who would take this up. I certainly would.

Good for Guy. He is recognising that a very large proportion of the population do not share the parochial mindset of the loud mob.

So basically it's a non story.

Seems it's just being promoted by him and another Lib Dum MEP. The Lib Dums don't control a single major European government and the governments will have to agree this - all 27.

Most countries are happy to sell residency and citizenship for a price - what will this fee be exactly?

One wonders what possible objection Brexiteers could have to it. It would be none of their business if their fellow citizens wanted to hold the passport of another country or entity.

I imagine the simplest solution would be to pay a straightforward passport fee - 100 Euros or whatever - and then renew it every ten years.

It wouldn't really be "selling citizenship" as such though. Every person in the UK is currently an EU citizen : they would be paying to retain their citizenship after the 'divorce'.

To have people being citizens of the EU, rather than citizens of a country within the EU is a huge jump.

This isn't going to happen.

100 euro a decade - I bet the EU will want far more than that!

And in many EU states permanent residence even for EU citizens now has lots of conditions attached. It's not an automatic and unconditional right even now. Here are the rules for EU nationals who want to live on Italy - which includes having to register with the police after 3 months.


http://www.poliziadistato.it/articol...Union_citizens

Not 'rather than' but 'and' surely?

What a good idea, depends on how much though
My OH is European and post Brexit could be difficult depending on how the dust settles

You are right.

I didn't realise I got that in 1993

Just a thought, in the unlikely event that this comes to pass it would also apply to brexit voters who could then have their cake and eat it.

And what "country" would that be precisely ? Despite the anthem, parliament, currency, flag, etc, etc, the EU is NOT a country so how can anyone be a citizen of a country that does not exist ? Who would you call upon if you were in a country outside the EU, which do exist incidentally, and needed diplomatic or consular assistance. I have no issue with anyone who wishes to remain a citizen of some political project with federalistic intentions, so long as they pay for it themselves. I`m sure every single one of the 16,141,241 who voted to remain are forming an orderly queue as we speak. (Or type for those who take every syllable literally)

The whole point of wanting EU citizenship would be to freely move around the EU of course ie. having the right to work, study or reside there. British people would be paying for the right to have freedom of movement in other words - EU citizenship wouldn't be much use to them outside of Europe.

And of course the EU would expect the UK to reciprocate in allowing EU a form of UK citizenship and would would be back where we started and STILL at the mercy of the EU. The EU would dictate the terms and that would end adding yet more countries unfettered access to the UK. They could also issue them to non-UK citizens and that would give them access to the UK. They wouldn't be fussy about who they issued them to as long as their destination was the UK. Sounds great.

I don't agree with dividing the UK citizens like this, but it seems Remain voters don't want to ever unite together with Leave voters to make the country Great again (I think Leave voters are a lot more open to putting political differences aside). So if that's the case let them pay for the privilege (or not) of staying in the EU and their fantasy World of how great it is. The EU big-wigs will love it because they will be coining it money wise (they don't care about the UK citizens) and everyone's happy we can have our Brexit Eutopia !

I actually think if you did a study on all the Remoaners and their posting history you'd see most of them disagree with every decision the country makes.. it is not so much about the EU as sabotaging British politics and just moaning..

The EU couldn't force freedom of movement onto the UK, certainly not if it was outside the Single Market. According to Verhofstadt, this new arrangement wouldn't be an offer to the UK government but directly to British people on a one to one basis.

Sorry it is the likes of leavers like you who want to divide us so stop with the lecturing.

They would expect a reciprocal arrangement for EU citizens living here, they just might not say it yet.

I don't think so, they only care about the money from rich British luvvies

They pay taxes already. They are much more concerned about allowing people into the UK. Otherwise they wouldn't be discussing it now.

This wouldn't be a formal bilateral arrangement between the UK and the EU. It would be more of an informal offer to British citizens (but fully legal under both UK and EU law).

The simple area to work with is allowing UK/EU citizens that freedom to travel with just that passport (maybe with a stamp in) thus avoiding e-form filling and (more importantly to me) the ability to breeze through the EU/EEA queues at airports.

Other stuff is based on reciprocity which wouldn't work with the UK - ie the ECHC, employment issues etc. Now if the UK kept the ECHC agreements then that would carry on regardless, but allowing us to search for work there but not them here wouldn't go down well with the EU.

So best hope is a watered-down version which, for a fee, we get fast-tracked at airports, and not treated as "aliens" stood in a sweltering queue while they find out, in front of you, if Bob Bloggs has enough money to get home