BREXIT – Need to safeguard citizens’ rights
Intervention by AKEL MEP and GUE/NGL Vice-President N. Sylikiotis at the plenary of the European Parliament
Wednesday 17th May 2017, Nicosia
“The BREXIT decision of the British people must be respected without any blackmail or pressures exerted on the negotiations. Any agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom must ensure that social rights, worker’s and labour gains, public health standards and the protection of the environment are safeguarded. It is very important to ensure that all the rights of European citizens residing, working or studying in the United Kingdom are safeguarded.” This is what AKEL MEP, N. Sylikiotis, stated today before the plenary of the European Parliament in the presence of European Council President D. Tusk. The subject of the debate was the 29th April European Council Conclusions on BREXIT.
AKEL MEP N. Sylikiotis underlined that the BREXIT decision should make the European leaders reflect as it demonstrates the EU’s serious problems, expressing the dissatisfaction dominant among the peoples with the neo-liberal policies that are being promoted and with the curbing and undermining of the rights of workers and the peoples. As N. Sylikiotis pointed out, this is the reason why BREXIT should not be used as a pretext to legitimize the deepening of the neoliberal model and imposition of a multi-speed Europe.
In closing his intervention, AKEL MEP N. Sylikiotis made a special reference to the case of Ireland, welcoming the Council’s decisions referring to the Good Friday Agreement, to the importance of backing the peace process, as well as to the need to hard tough borders.
17.03.2017
