Lay My Hat

Hi Guys

As many of us on here are British Expats living in Europe. I do think this video is worth watching and sharing and remembering that with some confidence. The EU needs us more than we need them. By a ratio of 3 to 1.

https://youtu.be/Z2FTu1_M1u4


Cheers

Bob

But Bob, didn't anybody remind those Brexit voters:

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody DOORS off!"

Mols

Hi Bob

Just tried you watch the you tube video on your link .... Guess what a message from you tube

" sorry you are unable to view this content in your country as it may contain music or audio that is not permitted "

Me too, same reply!!!!

I had no problem watching the video, though the end of it did seem to have been cut off. BUT I don't understand what point it thinks it's making. It certainly doesn't reassure me that there is nothing to worry about.

'They' (the other EU governments) may need the british expats more than 'we' the UK need them but 'they' don't decide as a block. Any exit arrangement has to be approved by all EU member states but the Commissioner for each country will decide on the basis of what is good for their own country.

Even if the expats are OK what about those of us who own property abroad but don't live there? I for one am really worried.

We bought our properties 'knowing' (or as it turned out 'incorrectly thinking') that we were buying somewhere where if we needed emergency healthcare while there we would get it. We also thought that if we were renting it out, as long as we were paying social security in one EU country we wouldn't have to pay it in the other too. We figured that air fares between our main country of residence and where we owned our second home would remain cheap because both were in the EU. We benefitted from cheap phone calls between them and looked forward to any extra cost being eradicated altogether in the not too distant future. Once we the UK are out of the EU, none of these will be true, so even if all the current and expected financial instability dies down in a couple of years, there will still be real fears for people in our position. Will the Portuguese government be able to offer us anything to allay those fears and stop us all from selling up and buying elsewhere?

Turning back to what happens with the British expats, the countries with large numbers of them may well want to do a deal to keep them in their countries but they might not be able to afford to.

Take Portugal, where my property is, a lot of the expats are rather elderly and presumably need to call on the health service more than the Portuguese expats in the UK do. The Portuguese expats in the UK tend to be younger and in work and therefore entitled to treatment on the NHS by virtue of paying National Insurance there whether or not the UK is in the EU. While the UK is in the EU there is no health cost to having expats in one's country because Portugal (or other govt) reclaims the money it spends on the british expats from the UK govt. and vice versa. But what will happen when the Portuguese can no longer reclaim that money? How can they work out whether the money that those expats bring to the Portuguese economy outweighs what it would cost them to keep those expats in good health? If there is any doubt about it, they may not offer a good deal to the expats and if they don't, both the Portuguese economy and the expats themselves will lose out.

'This video is unavailable '

Moliere wrote:But Bob, didn't anybody remind those Brexit voters:

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody DOORS off!"

Mols