British ambassador says Czechs’ rights in UK will be high priority in Brexit negotiations
Britain on Wednesday started the clock running on what are likely to be high octane, and probably strained, negotiations to quit the European Union within two years. The so-called Article 50 letter announcing the official intention to quit was delivered in Brussels to the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
But May also flagged up some issues, such as the ambition to pursue parallel talks over withdrawal alongside negotiations over a new trade deal, and the issue of how much Britain must pay into the EU budget to leave. These have been seen as problematic.
Britain’s ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jan Thompson, came into Radio Prague’s studios on Wednesday to explain how the negotiations should proceed and what the position of Czechs already in Britain or seeking to go there to work or study will be.
Thompson said London is "looking for a deep and special partnership with the European Union.ʺ And while the so-called Brexit talks are often described as a divorce settlement, the British ambassador preferred a slightly more upbeat terminology. ʺWe do not like to describe it as a divorce. We like to see it as a new chapter in a relationship," she explained.
A British priority is to reassure Czechs already living and working in Britain about their future and that will be high on the agenda early during the talks, she added. And the same reciprocal status should be given to British citizens in the EU, she said. The status of those who come later would be subject to whatever details are decided during the negotiations, she added.
Ambassador Thompson said her impression from talks with Czechs was that they are disappointed and regretted the outcome of the Brexit referendum last June. Within the EU, London and Prague were like-minded on many issues, she explained.
But Britain’s ambition was to foster continued strong and close relations, she said. "We want to retain a very strong bilateral relationship with the Czech Republic after we leave the European Union, potentially have a deeper and stronger bilateral relationship than when we were part of the European Union.ʺ
For the Czech side, Britain is the fourth biggest export destination with many Czech jobs depending on that market, she underlined, stressing that the Czech position on Brexit was likely to be shaped by pragmatic considerations such as its citizens’ rights and jobs.
Taking a step back, ambassador Thompson said she thought Britain’s view of the Common Market, European Community, and European Union, as it eventually became, had always been practical and pragmatic, and perhaps less emotional than many other Member States. Key factors during the referendum vote was probably the British feeling that they were ‘disconnected’ from Brussels decision making and that immigration had got out of control. Annual net immigration to Britain has recently been running at around 300,000, the size of the Czech Republic’s second city, Brno, she explained.
