Brussels angry as Britain set to boycott Brexit meeting to be addressed by Guy Verhofstadt

A hearing put together by the European Parliament to look into the consequences the UK’s exit on EU citizens residing in the UK set to be snubbed by the British Government.

The hearing tagged ‘The situation and rights of EU citizens in the UK’ is to be addressed by Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt today along with Anne-Laure Donskoy, who co-chairs the 3 million campaigning for the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.

According to a draft programme released last week, “representatives of the UK Home Office” are also going to be in that meeting, being put together by Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) as well as the Petitions and the Employment and Social Affairs committees.

Nevertheless an update of the programme does not include any reference to the UK representatives. And “no futher explanation was given” for their decision not to participate.

Thus Sophie in ‘t Veld a MEP and LIBE committee stated to politico that she such a decision as a snub.

She said: “It’s disappointing but not surprising. It’s a sign of how they really feel about citizens.”

A letter was sent to the PM in February by Ms in ‘t Veld together with other MEPs requesting her to bring to an end any bureaucratic red tape of EU nationals living in the UK and to guarantee their rights.

Unsatisfied with the response, Ms in ’t Veld set up a task force to look at cases where EU citizens had faced what she described as a “bureaucratic wall”.

She said: “The tone of that letter was absolutely ridiculous. It was a sign of how insensitive and careless they are about people.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said that they had received the Parliament’s invitation to attend the hearing but would not confirm whether they planned to send anyone to the event.

Even though the Parliament will have no straight participation in the Brexit discussions, it does have the final power of veto over the final withdrawal deal in a simple majority vote which comes up after all the remaining 27 member countries have validated it.

Expectations are MEPs will make some efforts to disrupt proceeding or at least try to slow things down by issuing political resolutions as talks proceed.