There has been a surge in UK citizens acquiring the nationality of another EU country since the Brexit referendum, according to data obtained by the BBC.
In 2017 a total of 12,994 UK citizens obtained the nationality of one of the 17 member states from which the BBC has received figures.
This compares with 5,025 in 2016 and only 1,800 in 2015.
The most frequent new nationality was German, which saw a huge jump from just 594 cases in 2015 up to 7,493 in 2017.....
The rise is presumed to be the result of Britons who can meet the criteria seeking to keep their legal rights attached to European Union membership. The 2017 figure is about seven times the 2015 level.
The dramatic increase is consistent across many countries. France was the second most popular nationality, jumping from 320 instances in 2015 to 1,518 last year, and then Belgium, where the increase was from 127 to 1,381.
The number for Ireland rose from 54 in 2015 to 529 in 2017. However, this does not include new Irish passport applications from the much larger number of people who already had entitlement to Irish citizenship, due for example to being born in Northern Ireland.
@Olivier5,
British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) compiled a list of 23 points on which firms urgently need clarity and said the government has only begun to partially deliver on two of them.
Brexit: time running out for answers to firms’ real-world questions, says BCC
@Walter Hinteler,
It's obvious that the UK won't be ready to leave in March, the deadline.
So what happens then?
@Blickers,
The British government is aiming for a free trade zone with the EU after the Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May announced this agreement after a meeting of several hours at her country residence Chequers northwest of London. The meeting was intended to resolve the government's fierce internal dispute over the future shape of trade relations with Europe.
BBC:
Cabinet agrees 'collective' stance on future EU dealQuote:Downing Street said the proposals marked a "substantial evolution" in the UK's position and would resolve outstanding concerns about the future of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
"This is a proposal that I believe will be good for the UK and good for the EU, and I look forward to it being received positively," Mrs May told the BBC.
One pro-Brexit cabinet minister told the BBC there was "no point" pushing for a vote as "we were well and truly outnumbered by 20 to seven".
Nicholas Watt, political editor of BBC Newsnight, said the minister also warned that "it will be a problem" if there is any attempt to "water down plans even further" should the EU reject the UK's proposals.
@Walter Hinteler,
Quote Walter:
Quote:The British government is aiming for a free trade zone with the EU after the Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May announced this agreement after a meeting of several hours at her country residence Chequers northwest of London. The meeting was intended to resolve the government's fierce internal dispute over the future shape of trade relations with Europe.
That sounds good so far, but the only people who have agreed to it are in the UK government. What are the chances the rest of the EU will buy this-or even use it as a basis for serious negotiation?
@Blickers,
I'm not sure, but I have doubts.
Especially now, since the Brexit minister resigned.
I wonder, if this May-cabinet will survive.
The thumb-down monkey was here; all posts were down to zero when I came in.
@Walter Hinteler,
Mr Davis - who was followed in his resignation by junior minister Steve Baker - said the UK could be left in "at best a weak negotiating position". But the prime minister said she didn't agree and thanked Mr Davis "warmly" for his work.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says another key Leave campaigner, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, is favourite to take on the Brexit brief, which includes leading negotiations with Brussels.
@Walter Hinteler,
I think the thumbsdown monkey is trying to tell us something, using the only language it knows of: the thumbsdown... What could it be though?
That "Brexit" should really be called "Brex-down" as in "break-down"?
@Olivier5,
I think we’re somebody’s little Sim City, like a little boy who likes to stick a twig in the ant hole and enjoys watching the crazy response.
Some people here are giving him a good show. The immature, suspicious human condition, front and center.
And now Boris Johnson quits to add to pressure on May over Brexit.
He's the third minister to walk out over Theresa May’s Brexit plan.
@Walter Hinteler,
For the economy's sake, let's hope the ultras get marginalized and May manages to get some sort of workable soft Brexit... Otherwise, with the congruence of a hard Brexit in Europe and Trump's global trade wars, the world economy could crash big time.
@Lash,
You got the wrong metaphor. It's more like a monkey going around and shitting thumbsdowns everywhere it sees people agreeing with one another.
@Walter Hinteler,
Britain volunteered to host the meeting of EU and Balkans governments to discuss the future of the region and its relationship with the EU today and tomorrow.
Ministers from the six western Balkan countries as well as those from Germany, Austria, France, Poland, and other EU countries were due to hear Mr Johnson speak at the event but were left wondering where he was ...
... and European Council President Donald Tusk raised the idea that Brexit might be called off in a tweet today after Boris Johnson resigned
