Up to 45,000 Britons who live and pay tax in Britain but work in mainland Europe could lose their jobs under Theresa May’s proposals for EU citizens in the UK, it has emerged.
British commuters to mainland Europe and short-term contractors who work on the continent say the British proposal does not cater for them.
Chris Williams, 53, an ex-RAF special projects officer, who is working on a software development contract for a European defence consortium in the Netherlands, said: “As soon as the vote for Brexit came along, I started to get worried. At the moment I’m only eligible to work in Europe because Britain is in the EU and each country has double tax agreements.”
He has spent the past decade hopping from one short-term contract to another in Holland, Belgium and Germany and says IT contractors like him are in high demand in Europe.
But because he does not settle in one country he fears his work opportunities will collapse after Brexit.
“If the freedom of movement is gone, I won’t be able to apply for the jobs in the first place,” said Williams, who has worked for the Luftwaffe
in Germany and on ballistic missile defence systems, moving around Germany, Belgium and Holland for periods of six months to two years.
Workers like Williams have raised their concern as the European parliament chief Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said MEPs would veto the British proposal unless it was improved. Among the many questions he raised was the lack of provision for EU citizens commuting to the UK: “Why are frontier workers, who work in the UK but live in the EU, not mentioned at all?”"
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...itizens-brexit
It was the will of the people...
British commuters to mainland Europe and short-term contractors who work on the continent say the British proposal does not cater for them.
Chris Williams, 53, an ex-RAF special projects officer, who is working on a software development contract for a European defence consortium in the Netherlands, said: “As soon as the vote for Brexit came along, I started to get worried. At the moment I’m only eligible to work in Europe because Britain is in the EU and each country has double tax agreements.”
He has spent the past decade hopping from one short-term contract to another in Holland, Belgium and Germany and says IT contractors like him are in high demand in Europe.
But because he does not settle in one country he fears his work opportunities will collapse after Brexit.
“If the freedom of movement is gone, I won’t be able to apply for the jobs in the first place,” said Williams, who has worked for the Luftwaffe
in Germany and on ballistic missile defence systems, moving around Germany, Belgium and Holland for periods of six months to two years.Workers like Williams have raised their concern as the European parliament chief Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said MEPs would veto the British proposal unless it was improved. Among the many questions he raised was the lack of provision for EU citizens commuting to the UK: “Why are frontier workers, who work in the UK but live in the EU, not mentioned at all?”"
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...itizens-brexit
It was the will of the people...
- Can't believe I've been studying Deutsch for a whole year now. Still none the wiser.
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