UK citizens are losing our European citizenship because of Brexit. Stay European is the campaign for an EU associate membership scheme that would give us the option to continue as EU members as individuals.
We are building a group of UK citizens who want to stay European. Joining the campaign is in itself a declaration of your wish to be considered European and to apply to become an associate citizen of the EU. Once the campaign is large enough to gain wider attention, we will lobby the EU to create a formal scheme that we can sign up to.
Fill in this form to register your wish to apply for EU associate citizenship. Have questions first? See the Q&A below.
At the moment, UK citizens have both UK and EU citizenship. Brexit means we are losing the EU citizenship part of this, even though we did not choose ourselves to renounce it. We believe we should have the right to opt in and continue to identify as Europeans, and that the most logical mechanism for this is individual citizenship of the EU.
We are open minded about this and understand that it would require some flexibility on the part of the EU for it to work. This is why we think the most likely hope is to make clear that we are a group of UK citizens who wish to continue as Europeans, asking the EU for associate citizenship or a similar scheme on that basis. It has also previously been suggested that such a scheme could be tied to a fee, as an individual contribution to the EU budget, perhaps equivalent to what we currently pay in per person.
There have been a couple of petitions targeted at UK politicians, as well as a previous European Citizens Initiative on the topic. This campaign is not simply a petition however: it is about building a continuing group of people who want to apply for associate citizenship, and then pushing at EU level for the creation of a scheme for us to do so.
Yes, there has been support. Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and Brexit coordinator for the European Parliament, has been suggesting the idea at EU level since 2016 and as recently as December 2019 said it's time to "come back to the idea of 'European associated citizenship' for UK citizens who want to keep their link with Europe".
The UK government is unlikely to support such a scheme, but in principle it is possible for the EU to offer associate citizenship directly. We believe the transition period can be a chance to push for them to do so.
We understand that associate citizenship itself would do nothing for EU citizens living in Britain, as they will anyway retain EU citizenship but are at risk of losing rights in the UK. We support the3million's campaign for settled status to be made an automatic right and commit to defending the rights of our fellow Europeans to continue to live, work and study in Britain.
While it would ultimately be up to the EU, it is our aim that the scheme would be open to all UK citizens, wherever they are resident.
Look at it this way: no country has ever left the EU before. In truth, we don't know yet what's possible – this is an entirely new situation. So far tens of thousands of people want this. We can put on huge pressure.
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