Britain's treatment of EU nationals to be investigated by European Parliament

The British government's treatment of EU nationals applying for citizenship or permanent residency is to be investigated by the European Parliament.

Sophie in 't Veld, a deputy leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, told the Guardian that she intends on forming a taskforce which will investigate whether EU nationals have faced a "bureaucratic wall" when trying to secure their futures in the UK.

She believes Britain is making it overwhelmingly difficult for those nationals who have lived in the UK for decades and are applying for residency or citizenship in the uncertainty that followed Brexit.

"People feel they are being harassed," she said. "Why is the British government trying to make it so hard for people who have been living in the UK for decades, who have set up a family there, work there? It is their home.

"What sort of signal are they trying to send out to these people?

"I am not aware of UK nationals trying to apply for citizenship elsewhere in the EU running into these kind bureaucratic walls. I am not saying it doesn't exist but I have not heard of it yet.

"I can only suppose other countries are a bit more welcoming and facilitating."

The bureaucratic walls Veld is referencing include 85-page forms requiring huge stacks of documentation, including P60s for five years, historic utility bills and a diary of all the occasions an individual has left the country since they settled in the UK.

Several EU nationals have been asked to leave the UK for failing to tick one of the boxes on the form.

Veld intends to form the taskforce after Theresa May triggers Article 50 and begins Brexit negotiations.

She will also request that the European Parliament's committee on civil liberties, on which she sits, calls a representative of the British government to come to Brussels to account for cases where EU nationals have felt unfairly treated by the state or by British employers as a consequence of the Brexit vote.