European Parliament group fires British staffers in post-Brexit ‘restructuring’

The European Conservatives and Reformists plan to replace them with Polish nationals, officials say.

The European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament on Thursday dismissed its British staff without prior notice, invoking a revamp after Brexit, several Parliament officials told POLITICO.

According to the officials, Gabriel Beszlej, the secretary-general of the ECR group, called in British staffers the day after MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Withdrawal Agreement.

One ECR official said: "I think the timing says enough. I’m not keen to speculate that it was for any other reason to be honest, because I’m not aware of any other reason."

"They've told us we'll be given our notice, which we haven't received yet," another ECR official said. The official said staffers were asked to leave their jobs because "changing political circumstances means restructuring."

Other officials said the group plans to replace its British staffers with Polish nationals.

The U.K.'s governing Tory Party was part of the ECR group and until recently, Tory MEPs were one of the largest political forces in the group. But with the Brexit referendum and the electoral gains made by Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Polish MEPs outnumbered their British colleagues and became the largest political force in the group.

As Britain is leaving the EU, British MEPs and their British assistants were asked to vacate their posts and clear out their offices in Strasbourg and Brussels. EU staff rules say that EU citizenship is a requirement to work in EU institutions unless exceptions are granted (for example: non-U.K. MEPs can grant a derogation to their British assistants).

European Commission staffers have the most reassurance: An internal email briefing sent in 2018 by then Budget and Human Resources Commissioner Günther Oettinger says that in the case of officials, existing jobs will remain unless explicitly asked to resign in cases of "conflicts of interest or international obligations."

But under Parliament rules, political groups are free to decide whether they wanted to keep their British staffers or not.