Subject: Protection of workers', academics' and students' rights after Brexit
In the context of Brexit, workers, academics and students from EU Member States, including Greece, living in the UK face a serious and tangible threat to their residence status and employment and social security rights. Employers are already taking advantage of their need to conclude employment contracts in order to secure residence permits and demanding a heavy price. The aim of this attack is to squeeze wages and crack down on collective bargaining, a goal pursued both by the EU and national governments, by promoting corresponding anti-employment measures in the Member States.
It is being mooted that students will see an increase in university tuition fees and lose access to grants, as they will be treated uniformly as foreign students in the UK. There is also uncertainty about the right, in the context of the EU, to free public health, which is already under pressure, with the possibility of new extortionate fees or compulsory private social security being imposed.
Given that, with the coronavirus pandemic acting as catalyst, we are heading for a new crisis of capitalism, which will further aggravate the plight of workers and the poor, will the Commission say:
how does it view the need to safeguard:
the employment and social security rights of workers, academics and students and free public health for the citizens of the EU Member States living in the UK?
the corresponding rights of British citizens - workers, academics and students - in the EU Member States?
Answer given by President von der Leyen on behalf of the European Commission (12 August 2020)
According to the Withdrawal Agreement (WA), during the transition period that will end on 31 December 2020, EU legislation on free movement and social security coordination fully applies to and in the United Kingdom (UK) and with the same legal effects as in the Union and the Member States.
After the end of the transition period, EU citizens and their family members in the UK and UK nationals and their family members in the EU having exercised free movement rights in accordance with EC law at the end of the transition period, will have certain rights safeguarded by the WA.
Among those safeguarded rights are residence rights, rights of entry and exit, the right to equal treatment with nationals of the host State, rights of workers. Persons in a cross-border situation involving the UK and one or more EU Member States will also have their social security entitlements protected under the WA, for their lifetime, if the conditions therein continue to be met.
Students who are beneficiaries of the WA cannot be discriminated on grounds of nationality and have the right to the same tuition fees as nationals. They may also continue to benefit from the European Health Insurance Card.
The mobility of students who are not beneficiaries of the WA after the end of the transition period is a matter that concerns the future relationship with the UK, which is currently being negotiated. In the absence of specific mobility arrangements for students in the future agreement, they may have to pay a fee in order to benefit from public healthcare under UK immigration law and higher tuition fees.
The EU proposal for the future agreement includes mobility arrangements for students and the necessary social security coordination rules, as well as the possibility to participate in Union programmes such as Erasmus.