Verhofstadt wants Britons to keep rights post Brexit

UK citizens should be allowed to keep the benefits of EU membership, chief European Parliament Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said on Friday.

He said he had received more than 1,000 letters from Britons who did not want to sever their links with “European civilisation”.

Verhofstadt said the rights of EU nationals living in the UK and Briton living on the continent was a priority and could not be part of the “political games”, that have taken place of late.

The former Belgian prime minister told the BNBC said Brexit had been a "tragedy" and a "disaster" for people in the UK and EU.

He also warned the European Parliament had veto powers over any deal struck.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, which would fire the starting gun on two years ef exit talks.

"So emotion is now coming up and all those voters will want to remain in the European Union and have the feeling that they are lost, that nobody is defending them anymore, that they are losing a part of that identity - and it's for that reason that I'm trying to convince the European Union, not only the European Parliament, to take on board that feeling of UK citizens,” Verhofstadt said.

"I think we need to examine what type of special arrangement we can make for those individual citizens who want to continue their relationship with the EU, and the opposite - it's for both sides."

He described as a “crisis for the EU".

"The fact that a large country like Britain is leaving the EU...? It's shown a crisis in the European Union - it's a disaster. That Britain goes out of the EU is a tragedy, a disaster, a catastrophe - you name it."

Verhofstadt acknowledged the goal now was to find "a new partnership" between the EU and the UK. However he said this could not be within the single market "unfortunately, because of the decision taken by the UK government...because they don't accept the full freedom (of movement)".

"It cannot be the customs union, because they want to make their own trade deals. It cannot be by the European Court of Justice - it cannot be the European economic area."