‘The Commission has consistently made clear that the rights of EU citizens in the United Kingdom and UK nationals in the EU are our priority. They should not pay the price for Brexit,’ indicated an EU Commission press statement on 30 January 2019, the day it adopted a final set of “no-deal” contingency measures aimed at safeguarding the rights of those who have exercised their right to free movement prior to the UK exiting under a no-deal scenario. European texts cover how social security systems can best coordinate to mitigate the effects of intra-European movement, so that required insurance periods to be fully counted, that certain services be provided etc., and in fact that encouraged this mobility. The new measures seek to safeguard the rights of EU citizens as well as of UK citizens who, if the UK officially becomes a ‘third country’ under ‘hard Brexit’ terms, would in theory no longer benefit from such coordination measures. These citizens would be able to continue to benefit from the regulations that applied to their periods of mobility prior to the ‘divorce’ i.e. prior to 30 March 2019.
If the UK does indeed become a ‘third country’ (i.e. under a ‘hard Brexit’ scenario) then the ‘the principles and rules for social security coordination will cease to apply as of the date of the exit,’ the press statement reminded.
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