EuroNews Weekly by Kevin Fraser Park
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| Brits in France Photo: Flickr CC / Mike McBey |
France’s parliament has passed a law which will allow British second home owners to stay in the country for up to 6 months without a visa.
Many British home owners who bought property in Europe, including here in Spain, have been campaigning to end the Brexit rules which restrict them to stays of maximum 90 days in in every 180-day period.
The only way second-home owners can currently stay for more than 90 days is to apply for a long-stay visa, which can be a lengthy, complicated and expensive process.
Property owners argued that the system introduced following Britain’s departure from the EU was unfair because European citizens are still allowed to stay in the UK for up to 6 months without a visa, whether they owned a property or not.
French parliament votes to ease restrictions
Now it seems that the French government agrees. Steven Jolly, the founder of the France Visa Free Facebook group, which has been helping second-home owners write to their French MPs to ask for a change in the law, said he was delighted that the rules were finally changing.
“After 2 years of campaigning it’s a great achievement,” he told a reporter from The Times. “This is a recognition that those with a home in France should be allowed to continue living in their homes in just the same way that they did before Brexit without having to make France their primary residence. It shows that the French are willing to address the adverse effects of Brexit.”
It is not yet clear how the new rules will work nor when they will come into force. It is also possible that the Constitutional Council, France’s equivalent of the Supreme Court, could reverse the decision.
Jolly said: “At the moment all we know is that a law has been passed. A note of caution needs to be exercised; the law could be deemed unconstitutional as it favours one group of foreigners over another.”
Meanwhile in Spain
Here meanwhile, Spain’s government minister in charge of tourism is appealing to Brussels to relax the restrictions so that Brits can spend longer in Spain. As we reported last month, a group has been set up to ask the national and regional governments in Spain (and also to ask the UK government to negotiate with Spain or the EU) for changes to relevant Spanish laws to allow all UK citizens to travel freely and/or to use their homes in Spain for up to 6 months per visit, up to 180 days in any 365 day period.
Perhaps things are starting to change and this new ruling by the French parliament will set the wheels in motion to give British second home owners throughout Europe, some good news in the New Year.
