EU boss blames millions of Britons who voted for Brexit for 'creating uncertainty' and dismisses UK MPs demands on a deal for expats as ‘nothing to do with reality’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-Britain-Brexit-Christmas.html#ixzz4RTQhDVNi
"Prime Minister Theresa May has said she is eager to confirm EU nationals living and working in Britain can stay after Brexit but has insisted there must be a matching deal for Britons abroad.
Mrs May proposed a deal that could have been completed by the EU summit in two weeks time but German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused.
Tonight Mr Tusk, the EU Council president, heightened tensions as he dismissed a call from more than 80 MPs to facilitate talks on a reciprocal deal for foreign workers in order to reassure them of their rights to stay after Brexit - insisting June's Leave vote is the only cause of uncertainty.
He said it would amount to starting talks on Brexit and insisted this can only be done by Britain triggering Article 50 of the EU treaties.
The issue affects some 1.2 million Britons and their families resident in the other 27 EU countries, and as many as 3.3 million EU citizens resident in the UK.
Former UK Cabinet Minister Owen Paterson said: 'Germany appears to be one of the last European countries to obstruct our Prime Minister's framework agreement on reciprocal rights.
'She must act now to reassure millions of UK and EU resident citizens. Angela Merkel is wrong to be intransigent.'
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: 'EU politicians should stop playing politics with people's lives.
'They should agree to end the speculation and take away the anxiety people feel about their futures.
'The EU yet again puts systems above people.'
Senior Tory MP Steve Baker told MailOnline: 'Donald Tusk and Angela Merkel are evidently determined to place dogmatic servitude to EU processes before the wellbeing of EU citizens.
'This dispiriting intransigence will be seen as yet further evidence the EU is run by an elite disconnected from the real concerns of voters.'
Michael Tomlinson, the Tory MP who wrote to Mr Tusk demanding a deal, told MailOnline: 'This needs to be resolved.
'It should not just be on the table at the next European Council meeting, but resolved - Merkel and Tusk are wrong to refuse to talk.
'We are human beings, not structures or process.' "
Tusk is right. Why should they be in a rush to do anything before May invokes Article 50?

