Brexit : Defend your rights

We learn from the press that the EU institutions are already working on a possible Brexit by preparing the negotiations and for sure also the HR issues are under investigation to prepare for the possibility that UK activates article 50. Commission, Council and Parliament sent reassuring messages to British staff but all of them contain the sentence "we will do our outmost" in the negotiations. This does not mean at all that your rights are granted.

Solidarité européenne feels very strongly that negotiations about the rights of staff from the UK are much too important to be left in the hands of the Commission. We only have to look at the terrible job they did in 2004 and then again in 2012 (where the attitude of the Commission was to lay prostrate in front of the Council and offer them everything, including a 40 hour working week, before negotiations even began!).

For this reason, Solidarité européenne has urged the other trade unions of the Alliance to engage a team of legal experts to work on this matter. The team should be made up of outside experts in public administration law and could be complemented by internal legal experts – perhaps some of the Brits working in the Commission legal service would like to participate.

Only in this way, can we hope to defend the rights of UK colleagues, who have been faithfully serving Europe for many years.

Join us and start defending your rights!