Thread by @mediawhizz

1. Some numbers from France on why the @EuropeanCommiss refusing to provide any dedicated local legal support for @britishineurope (who are still EU citizens) matters.

Particularly in the event of a #NoDealBrexit

https://twitter.com/mediawhizz/status/1027437512648810496

2. There are an estimated 150,000 Brits living in France. I say estimated because France is like the UK and doesn't require EU citizens to register. Many are trying to get permanent residence (carte de sejour) in case there's no deal and therefore no agreement on #citizensrights

3. There are 5 (yes 5) FCO staff dedicated to providing consular support for the citizens' rights aspect of Brexit. That's 5 for the entire EU 27 or 1.3mn @BritishInEurope (yes I know many are taking a new nationality but it's still a tiny number of staff to help the rest).

4. The person who covers France is great. But she's one person and also covers Belgium and Luxembourg. Brits in France need 10 of her in their own right.

5. There are backlogs in many French prefectures (the civil servants are lovely but overwhelmed). Many Brits also don't have the right papers to apply for the carte de sejour because they never thought they would have to get one.

@alison_morton has more alisonmortonauthor.com/2018/08/on-bei…

6. Our French member @RemainInFrance reports 45,000 citizens' rights/residency interactions in its Facebook group in the past 28 days alone. They are a network of volunteers and are plugging gaps that the British government/Commission could and should be helping with.

7. We love our friends @The3Million and think they should get as much support and dedicated legal advice as possible. But we would like to be included too. Otherwise it's discrimination by @EuropeanCommiss

ENDS

I got the wrong handle for the Commission. It should be this @EU_Commission