A number of residents have been in touch with me regarding what would happen to ex-patriots and UK nationals in the EU if Britain leaves.
Well again there has been a lot of scaremongering. One of my colleagues described the status of British citizens on the continent if we vote 'Leave' as being like "illegal immigrants". Let's just dispel some of this nonsense and misinformation going around.
Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, anybody already living in an EU country, or who has property there, will have their current arrangements protected if we come out of the EU.
There are "acquired rights" which people have built up over time.
This works both ways as well. Whilst there are 320,000 Brits living in Spain and 250,000 Brits living in Ireland, there are roughly 400,000 French citizens living in London alone. London has been described as France's 6th largest city. There are more than double French people living in London than there are Brits living in the whole of France.
There is not going to be any mass deportation of French people if we vote to come out of the EU on 23 June. We will continue as we are at the moment, certainly anyone living in an EU country, or who has property in an EU country, will have their current arrangements protected.
Looking at the case of Greenland, which is the only country to come out of the EU, their citizens continued to have rights to live in the EU and there was no mass deportation of Greenland citizens back to Greenland. So let's put that scare story to bed once and for all.
Looking at healthcare costs, at the moment if you are living in Spain then NHS pays out the costs of any healthcare costs you might have and, by the same token, EU countries are supposed to reimburse the NHS for the costs of healthcare for EU citizens treated in the UK. In fact, what is happening is the NHS is paying out a lot more for British citizens in other EU countries than the NHS is getting back from EU citizens in the UK. So we are already paying for the healthcare cost of British citizens living in EU countries and that would continue just the same if we voted to come out. Another scare story put to bed.
In terms of people's working rights, this is one of many things that will need to be negotiated after we come out of the EU. It is going to be a complicated negotiation, but it will mean that we can choose what skill sets we want to come to this country. Similarly, there will be many UK citizens who will want to work on the continent and who will benefit those economies. This being the case common sense will prevail. There will be no huge upheaval in where people are living or able to work if we come out of the EU on 23 June, so let's put that latest scare story from 'Project Fear' to bed.