May's offer on EU expats after Brexit labelled 'pathetic'

A group campaigning for the residency rights of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit called Theresa May's offer to the bloc on the issue "pathetic".

May on Thursday used the three million EU citizens living in Britain as her opening gambit in Brexit negotiations, offering them a “settled status” if they had been in the country for five years.

May threw her chips on the table overnight at an EU leaders' summit in Brussels, describing it as "a fair and serious offer”.

But the co-chair of the 3Million movement, Nicolas Hatton, lambasted May's plan.

"There is something slightly pathetic about the Prime Minister's proposal which makes no reference to the detailed, comprehensive offer tabled by the EU,” he said.

"The Prime Minister described her proposal as fair and serious. It's neither fair nor serious."

Hatton said the UK offer still left uncertainty around the reunification of families, the right to work, the recognition of professional qualifications and the ability to retain UK rights when moving between and working across different European countries.

He added that it also lacked the lifetime guarantee of rights and enforcement by the European Court of Justice included in the formal proposal already tabled by the EU.

Britons in France also expressed their fears on Friday that May’s opening move could damage their position in Europe.

“We find it bizarre that she expects the EU to reciprocate to her offer which falls short of their own. Does she expect the EU to water down its offer to match hers?” Dave Spokes, a spokesman for the group Expat Citizen Rights in EU, told the Guardian.

“This is not a negotiation to get the lowest possible price. It is, or should be, a negotiation to gain the best support for real people – a country’s citizens.”