{"id":2786,"date":"2018-11-26T14:27:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T14:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2018-11-26T14:27:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T14:27:31","slug":"brexit-european-court-rejects-british-expats-referendum-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/2018\/11\/26\/brexit-european-court-rejects-british-expats-referendum-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: European court rejects British expats’ referendum challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

A court challenge over the legality of the EU\u2019s\u00a0Brexit<\/a>\u00a0negotiations brought by a 97-year-old war veteran and 12 other emigrant Britons has been rejected by the European court of justice in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

Harry Shindler, who lives in Italy, and others who reside in various EU member states had argued that the referendum in 2016 was invalid because they and more than a million Britons living in the EU were deprived of a vote.<\/p>\n

French lawyers acting for the British claimants said the EU should not, therefore, have accepted the UK\u2019s intention to withdraw and start negotiations which culminated in\u00a0the deal signed in Brussels<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday.<\/p>\n

But the Council of the\u00a0European Union<\/a>\u00a0opposed the application, arguing that the EU\u2019s decision did not affect the applicants\u2019 legal situation but was merely \u201ca preparatory act\u201d. Only when article 50 was completed, formalising the UK\u2019s departure, were the rights of the applicants liable to be affected, it maintained.<\/p>\n

The ECJ agreed, according to a statement issued by the court, that the \u201cdecision to open negotiations for an agreement with the UK \u2026 does not directly affect the legal situation of the applicants\u201d.<\/p>\n

It went on: \u201cThe [ECJ] therefore dismisses the action as inadmissible since the decision of the council authorising the opening of negotiations on Brexit does not produce binding legal effects capable of affecting the interests of the applicants by bringing about a distinct change in their legal position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shindler,\u00a0who was born in London and served in Italy during the second world war<\/a>, took part in the 1944 liberation of Rome. He married an Italian and went to live there when he retired in 1982. He was awarded an MBE in 2014 for his services to British-Italian relations.<\/p>\n

Before the court case, he said: \u201cWe are called expatriates but we are not all old or retired. We are journalists, interpreters, teachers and do all sorts of other jobs \u2013 we are representative of the general run of the British nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a 15-year time limit on British emigrants being able to register as overseas voters. The government has said it will support a\u00a0private member\u2019s bill<\/a>\u00a0introduced by the Conservative MP Glyn Davies that would do away with that time restriction in future.\u00a0Labour<\/a>\u00a0has refused to back the bill<\/a>, saying it would involve too much administration.<\/p>\n

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A court challenge over the legality of the EU\u2019s\u00a0Brexit\u00a0negotiations brought by a 97-year-old war veteran and 12 other emigrant Britons has been rejected by the European court of justice in Luxembourg. Harry Shindler, who lives in Italy, and others who reside in various EU member states had argued that the referendum in 2016 was invalid because they and more than… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2787,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}