His campaign group now has over 8,000 members and supporters and he said that the government “understands the problems and has shown empathy and frustration although we still need to stress that what we are campaigning for has nothing to do with Youth Mobility Scheme or the overall freedom of movement, while we would applaud any such move, that is not what we are about,” he said.
“What we are now doing is encouraging people to lobby their MP’s about the issue which stretches all across the European Union. The campaign is for people who want to be allowed to spend between 1 day and 6 months in Spain throughout the year, whenever they want, and without it affecting or being affected by time spent in the other 29 Schengen countries.
“This group has been set up to ask the national and regional governments in Spain (and also to ask the UK government to negotiate with Spain or the EU) for changes to relevant Spanish laws to allow all UK citizens to travel freely and/or to use their homes in Spain for up to 6 months per visit, up to 180 days in any 365 day period, separately and in addition to any allowance that may be given in or shared across any other Schengen zone countries. This is simply to match what the UK is now giving to Spanish citizens visiting the UK.
“In addition, for those with homes in Spain before Brexit, we are asking for the same rights for part-year residents as full-year residents have been given under the Withdrawal Agreement. Similar groups have been set up for Italy, Greece, Germany, Cyprus and France. Portugal, Sweden and France have all got solutions to this problem are all good examples that demonstrate Spain can change things if it wants to, regardless of its membership of Schengen.
“We’re asking for TWO things so that our campaign can benefit as many people as possible:
1. A simple 6-month-per-visit visa waiver that works in Spain only for all British passport holders, so that you don’t need to use up your 90/180 Schengen Visa Waiver allowance. This matches what Spanish visitors to the UK get.
2. Specifically for part-year residents who were there before Brexit: we want the same level of protection of your rights as has been given to full-year residents via the withdrawal agreement.
“The campaign does not oppose rejoining the EU nor rejoining the single market but the focus is on improving the outcome of Brexit for everyone with homes in Spain and reversing Brexit is out of scope for this campaign.
“And what is important is that the 90-day in 180-day rule can be resolved on biateral grounds. Any decision does not have to come from Brussels, it can be made on a country-to-country basis. We know that Spain has previously said that it does not like the ruling, so surely there must be some room for talks on the matter. In the end we simply want reciprocal deals and treatment, it’s only fair,” he said.
“We estimate this issue probably affects more than 1.6 million British ‘part-year’ residents who spend time and money in Spain each year. Across Europe the number could be as high as five to 10 million British people. Until Brexit, they did this completely lawfully either using Freedom of Movement or by registering as required in the event they ever stayed more than 90 days.
“We understand there are 800,000 properties in Spain that are owned by British people. So, conservatively allowing for just two people per property, this adds up to at least 1.6 million people impacted,” he said. The Liberal Democrats also understand the problem and now they have a much larger presence in parliament, its MPs can also help drive our campaign forward.
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For goodness sake, stop pedalling this Spain exemption nonsense. Spain is part of, and has open borders with, the Schengen zone. It is politically and physically impossible for Spain to have one immigration rule and the rest of the Schengen Zone another. Vis a vis, it will never happen, unless the entire Schengen Zone adopts the same policy. It really is that simple.
Such a shame a previous government didn't realise this before calling a referendum.
Suggesting Spain upend its immigration regime for the benefit of a few well-healed 3rd country nationals is utterly ridiculous. This is neither a serious article, nor a serious contributor.
Now they understand the problem. DO SOMETHING ABOUT REMOVING IT!!!.
Wow a whole 8,000, I doubt if that will have much sway.
Clearly a slow news day for Humphrey. Clearly no other news going on in his world, so just regurgitates another meaningless article about the 90 day rule. Yawn. Yawn. Give up Humphrey the 90 day rule will still be in place for the rest of your living days.