Brexit and what to do if you're lost

TEXT DiRAN BAJwA ILLUSTRATION DANiKA GiRON

Buckle in, this is a crash course on Brexit and what to do as a Brit in Sweden. with the results of the 2019 general election, Brexit will finally happen on 31 January, well not really but it is happening! We are just waiting on the european parliament to accept the withdrawal agreement and that is highly likely. As the token Brit, i have been asked to write an article explaining the situation. what i will also be attempting to do is keep British people like myself as informed as can be, and help them prepare for their stay in Sweden or perhaps even other european union (eu) countries. without further ado, let’s start this article.

First up, we should do a short recap for those who are out of the loop, or just lost in general, as it has all been rather confusing.

23rd June 2016: A referendum was held to decide whether the UK should stay in or leave the EU. Leave won 52% to 45%.

11th July 2016: Theresa May becomes the new leader of the Conservative Party following the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom from the Conservative Party leadership campaign.

13th July 2016: David Cameron steps down as Prime Minister, making Theresa May the new Prime Minister.

29th March 2017: The UK formally invokes Article 50 to leave the EU on the 29th March 2019.

10th April 2019: The Brexit deadline was delayed until the 31st October 2019.

24th May 2019: Theresa May steps down as Prime Minister.

23rd July 2019: Boris Johnson wins Conservative Party leadership election and becomes Prime Minister.

28th October 2019: Brexit has been delayed to the 31st January 2020.

12th December 2019: A general election is held where the Conservative Party win 365 seats in the House of Commons. With a majority of 326 needed, Boris Johnson remains as Prime Minister.

31st January 2020: Brexit happens and trade talks begin within weeks.

Delays worse than the British railway network and the role of leader of the Conservative Party being passed around more than a hot potato have all led us to here. There is still the small issue of how the House of Commons passed the EU Withdrawal Bill, the House of Lords made changes and then the MPs just overturned them. But issues for another time.

But what can we, the British aliens, do? Turns out we can do quite a lot. Obviously there is still a shroud of mystery to everything as no one really understands what will happen, but here is what we know.

There will be an implementation period. The first priority of this is to negotiate a trade deal with the UK. The UK government has made it clear they want to leave the customs union single market and they want to end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Many other things will need to be agreed upon during this time such as how the UK will work with the EU on law enforcement and a replacement to the European Arrest Warrant scheme. What’s important to take away from this is literally nothing has changed since the vote first happened. Another deadline has been added, and even this one can be extended!

We will have all the same benefits as before until the end of the period on the 31st December 2020. We will ‘broadly’ have the same entitlements as before. During the implementation period the EU countries will set up a system to apply for residence status; this will ensure we keep our rights after the end of the period. The application should be short and simple. It can be free of charge or should not cost much more than applying for a similar document like our identitetskort (ID card). So I guess we will all be out another £30 (given our currency doesn’t tank).

This brings this rollercoaster of an article to an end. I hope this has helped, but do not fret if you are still confused. To be honest, even after writing this I still don’t understand a thing. To stay in the loop, check out the Migrationsverket website and the British Embassy webpage/Facebook on a semi regular basis.