Yes, the UK has now left the EU, but has your right to work in the EU gone as well ?
As of Saturday morning 1st of February, the UK is no longer an EU member State.
The UK has left the EU and at least half of the population has celebrated the event and maybe even much more considering the success of the 12th of December’ vote in favour of Boris Johnson’ policy …
They wanted to leave ? They have left … (and France beat England 24-17)
So, what does it mean for those of you UK Outdoor professionals who operate in the tourism and in the Outdoor industry, holding UK qualifications and working in another EU Member State like France, Austria or Italy as raft leaders or ski instructors ???
Well in real terms it means very little not to say « nothing at all », since as of the 1st of February 2020, the EU and the UK have finally agreed to enter a « transition period » during which the Directives and all texts enforced within the EU will continue to apply to the UK and to UK citizens without any exception.
Thank God, there was NO “No deal”, and the only immediate consequence of a starting Brexit, is that UK MEPs have left Brussels and that UK citizens living in France will not vote for the Maires’ elections in March ! Waowww …
As of Saturday morning, UK citizens, UK qualifications and EU citizens holding UK qualifications therefore continue to benefit from the same situation as before Brexit started !
Magic, so what is all the fuss about ?
Well about absolutely nothing on the short term … until the end of the transition period, which for the time being has been set on the 31st of December 2020.
During the transition period (when nothing changes), the UK and the EU will start negotiating the new rules to be established for future relationships ; the job is immense as there are over 630 subjects that need to be dealt with, « recognition of qualifications » being only one of them: visa, rights to travel, fishing, nuclear policies, import and export of goods & equipment, drugs, tax, etc … every single aspect of the UK/EU daily relationship will have to be negotiated.
What a job !
But Boris seems to think that he will do this between now and the end of the year that is to say within 11 months … whereas the EU is not so convinced at all as in the past years, previous commercial deals between the EU and third countries have taken between 6 to 20 years to be negotiated, and even if there is an already existing base of cooperation between the EU and the UK, 11 months sounds like a very very short period of time indeed.
Although the UK has already explained that they will not negotiate an extension of the transition period, they can legally do so and gain 1 or even 2 more years of negotiating time, providing they ask for it before the 20th of July 2020 : We will see in 5 months time !!
In any case, your own rights will continue to run at least for another (nearly) year and the rights that have been secured before or during the transition period will be « grandfathered » AFTER this period !
Furthermore, even pending dossiers will also be dealt with under current legislation AFTER the end of the transition period !
Some of you might say : « Why weren’t we told before ? » Well because until the “Withdrawal Agreement” was voted by the Parliament and signed by the Council last week … no one knew for sure that all this would be the case !!! And the UK has made quite a few changes since the 2016 referendum …
For Outdoor people, the next problem, of course, is to figure out what the new recognition procedure will be AFTER the transition period – or of course, extended transition period; although nobody knows for sure, we do have ideas as 1° relationship between the EU and third countries already exist and 2° one can reasonably assume that due to the pre-existing relationships between the UK and the EU, the future relationship should not be that worse than the one already existing between the EU and third countries …. But we will see and this will be another article in due course !!
For now, considering that for at least another 11 months it is “business as usual” for everyone and indeed for those who will have taken advantage of this period to get their rights recognized (and/or who are in the process of getting them recognized), we strongly recommend that you do not listen to those who will threaten you with all sorts of fake news about your professional future and that you take advantage of the current transition period running for another 11 months to finalize the recognition of your rights or simply to get them recognized.
As UK citizens, do declare now in the EU ! Secure your rights !!
Tell your friends to declare and to get their rights to work confirmed … take advantage of the Directive that is still protecting UK citizens to get your qualifications recognized by the EU.
Only 11 months to go ….. and maybe more but this is another story.
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