Petition · past parliament

Theresa May must give British citizens the chance to keep their EU citizenship.

Rejected 13 signatures

What the petition asks

The EU is offering British citizens the chance to maintain benefits of EU membership, including freedom of movement, by individually opting in.

Theresa May must respect the rights of over 16 million people who voted to remain in the EU, and make voluntary citizenship a priority of negotiations.
Guy Verhofstadt, the EU parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator has said “All British citizens today have also EU citizenship. That means a number of things: the possibility to participate in the European elections, the freedom of travel without problem inside the union ...
We need to have an arrangement in which this arrangement can continue for those citizens who on an individual basis are requesting it.”

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Timeline

10 Mar 2017 Petition opened for signatures
20 Mar 2017 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 13
Status Rejected
Rejected 20 Mar 2017

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.