We stumbled across this article from Louise Bours, Ukip MEP, in the Huffington Post where she argues Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was scaremongering in his claim that the National Health Service would come under increasing pressure if the United Kingdom broke free from the European Union.
But she is wrong, because this is not as simple as she claims and in fact wide open to interpretation.
The Vienna Convention applies to agreements between States, not between
States and International organisations. Fine if the Treaties are
considered agreements between States (individually),
not so fine if the EU collectively is considered an international
organisation.
Even if the OAPS are allowed to stay Brexit may still impact on their rights within their country of residence in particular access to healthcare which is currently a reciprocal arrangement between the EU states and ourselves. What if, for example, they need a family member to come and join them to help with their care? Didn't the UK just kick an elderly lady out recently because we said she had no rights of residence to remain with her daughter who was caring for her? In this case the elderly lady concerned was from South Africa, so she was not an EU citizen.
Furthermore workers on fixed term contracts will not have them renewed even if the Vienna Convention is applied. The same with SMEs and their contracts with other EU states. There is no mention of Article 1 of the Vienna Convention in Article 50 of the TFEU which relates to the provisions of an EU member state leaving the EU. In fact we can't find anything that specifically states that Article 1 will definitively apply in case we leave.
Surely someone like Louise Bours, who is not a lawyer, but an actress-turned-politician should not be making our OAPs feel secure when they might not be. Surely it is better for them to be considering their options now rather than later.
UKIP cannot offer assurances to anyone, and in the case of a Brexit it won't be down to them or our government, it will be down to the remaining 27 Member States. What in fact Louise Bours and UKIP are doing here are offering assurances without having any mandate to do so. The Vienna Convention MAY apply, but this is not as clear as she makes out.
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| Louise Bours, or Van Der Bours as she was known. |
Even if the OAPS are allowed to stay Brexit may still impact on their rights within their country of residence in particular access to healthcare which is currently a reciprocal arrangement between the EU states and ourselves. What if, for example, they need a family member to come and join them to help with their care? Didn't the UK just kick an elderly lady out recently because we said she had no rights of residence to remain with her daughter who was caring for her? In this case the elderly lady concerned was from South Africa, so she was not an EU citizen.
Furthermore workers on fixed term contracts will not have them renewed even if the Vienna Convention is applied. The same with SMEs and their contracts with other EU states. There is no mention of Article 1 of the Vienna Convention in Article 50 of the TFEU which relates to the provisions of an EU member state leaving the EU. In fact we can't find anything that specifically states that Article 1 will definitively apply in case we leave.
Surely someone like Louise Bours, who is not a lawyer, but an actress-turned-politician should not be making our OAPs feel secure when they might not be. Surely it is better for them to be considering their options now rather than later.
UKIP cannot offer assurances to anyone, and in the case of a Brexit it won't be down to them or our government, it will be down to the remaining 27 Member States. What in fact Louise Bours and UKIP are doing here are offering assurances without having any mandate to do so. The Vienna Convention MAY apply, but this is not as clear as she makes out.
