Brussels is taking the UK to the EU Court of Justice for allegedly failing to comply with post-Brexit free movement laws, in the first major blow-up between the two sides since Labor came to power.
The European Commission said it believed there had been “several shortcomings” in Britain’s implementation of the treaties in late 2020, with allegations focusing on Britain’s failure to comply with EU laws on free movement of people.
The United Kingdom left the bloc in early 2020, but in the Brexit deal it agreed to continue allowing European citizens and their families already residing in Britain to continue living there.
In a statement, the Commission said: “The European Commission decided to refer the United Kingdom to the Court of Justice of the European Union… for failure to comply with EU law on the free movement of EU citizens and their family members to end of 2020.
“After carefully assessing the UK’s responses, the Commission maintains that several elements of the complaints remain unaddressed, including the rights of workers and the rights of extended family members,” it added.
The legal action comes as the Labor government elected this year has sought to “reset” relations with Brussels after years of post-Brexit bad blood under previous Conservative administrations.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels in October, and this month Finance Minister Rachel Reeves became the first British chancellor since Brexit to attend to a meeting of their eurozone counterparts.
The case began in May 2020, when the EU sent a formal notification letter to Britain complaining that national law limited the scope of beneficiaries of the EU’s free movement law.
The United Kingdom left the bloc in early 2020, but in the Brexit deal it agreed to continue allowing European citizens and their families already residing in Britain to continue living there. Pictured: Queues at the port of Dover.
Queue of trucks at the German-Polish border
Police detain a man at the German-French border in Kehl, western Germany.
A German police officer with a guard dog at the border with France, as all German land borders are subject to random checks.
The infringement decision issued by the Commission stated that the UK has breached the free movement directive as well as three articles of the EU treaties by failing to “comply with EU law on the free movement of EU citizens and their families.”
He added: ‘EU legislation on the free movement of people continues to apply in the UK as if it were still an EU Member State during the transition period.
‘Furthermore, the rights of EU citizens resident in the UK after the end of the transition period, as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, are based on the rights they currently enjoy in the UK under the rules of the EU.
“The UK’s shortcomings in the implementation and transposition of EU free movement law risk also affecting the implementation of citizens’ rights under the Withdrawal Agreement after the end of the transition period.”
In July this year, the EC announced that further action had been taken due to continuing shortcomings in the UK’s implementation of the treaty.
The UK then had two months to respond to the concerns of the EC, which threatened to refer the case to the European Court of Justice.
But despite exchanges with London, the commission said “several elements of the complaints remain unaddressed, including workers’ rights and the rights of extended family members,” warranting legal action.
Britain formally left the EU on January 31, 2020.
But under the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’, EU citizens and their family members who moved to Britain before the end of 2020 were granted broadly the same rights as they had before Brexit.