BRUSSELS (AP) – The Latest on the Brexit talks (all times local):
11:35 a.m.
Some European Union citizens in Britain are unimpressed with Prime Minister Theresa May’s promise they are welcome to stay after Brexit.
May has released an open letter to the 3 million EU nationals in the U.K., saying Britain and the bloc are within “touching distance” of a deal on citizens’ rights. She says registering for permanent residence will be simple and inexpensive, and a group of EU nationals will help oversee the process.
She denies treating EU citizens – and 1 million Britons in other EU countries – as bargaining chips.
The 3 Million, a lobby group for EU nationals in Britain, says the government has ignored its views, particularly concerns about whether people will be able to bring their families to live with them in the U.K.
The group’s co-founder, Nicolas Hatton, says “the government can do better than this letter.”
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11:20 a.m.
Hard-core euroskeptics in Britain’s Parliament are urging Prime Minister Theresa May to walk away from European Union divorce talks unless the bloc starts discussing trade.
A group of lawmakers and peers including former Treasury chief Nigel Lawson and ex-Environment Secretary Owen Paterson accuses the EU of “deliberately deferring discussions” about the post-Brexit relationship.
In a letter released Thursday, the lobby group Leave Means Leave says that if there is no breakthrough this week May should declare unilaterally that Britain will leave the bloc without a deal in March 2019 and revert to World Trade Organization rules to trade with the EU.
May is meeting the other 27 EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. Britain wants to start talking about future relations, but the EU 27 are likely to say there has not been sufficient progress on divorce terms.
