Prime Minister Urges Slovaks Living in Britain to Register Themvelves ASAP

Speaking on RTVS’s programme ‘Sobotne dialogy’ (Saturday Dialogues), Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) in connection with Brexit called on Slovaks living in Great Britain to register themselves as soon as possible so that they have their current rights guaranteed.

“After the clear victory of Prime Minister Johnson, who has now a comfortable majority in the British Parliament, there are probably no more doubts that Britain will definitively leave the EU,” stated Pellegrini. He said he congratulates Boris Johnson on his victory, however, he thinks it’s a bad signal, as this is the first time that someone is going to leave the elite group of the European Union.

Pellegrini expects Britain to ratify the Brexit agreement very quickly. In this connection he pointed to the fact that there will be only 11 months left to settle all relations. “If we fail to agree on everything within 11 months, Britain will become a third country to us, it will be a subject to regulations like any other third country and nobody wants that,” stated the prime minister.

Pellegrini stressed that nothing changes for some 100,000 Slovaks living or working in Britain until the end of 2020. “They only need to register themselves and then they will be viewed as British citizens having all their rights guaranteed also after 2020,” stressed the prime minister, urging them not to leave it up to the last moment.

The prime minister noted that the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry has published all the important information concerning Brexit on its website. “Meanwhile, as the Slovak prime minister I invite all of the Slovaks living in Britain to return to Slovakia,” said Pellegrini, calling on them not to stay in Great Britain and come back home if they feel like this.