(16 Oct 2016) LEAD IN:
Brexit has cast uncertainty over the future of thousands of British residents living in Spain's Costa del Sol.
EU leaders are due soon to begin unprecedented - and knotty - negotiations on how to extricate the UK from the bloc.
Some Britons living in Spain are considering changing nationality and brushing up on their Spanish language skills.
STORY-LINE:
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over British expats in Spain.
Nobody is saying what the rights of Britons living in the EU might be in a future outside the bloc. Many are worried about losing entitlements in Spain, which is part of the EU.
A dozen students, most of them British pensioners who have been living in the "Costa del Sol" for decades, have joined a new Spanish Nationality Course at the Parnell Academy in Mijas.
They're learning the basics of the language, as well as some local history and culture, to prepare for two exams that must be taken ahead of being granted Spanish Nationality.
"I really have no intention of going back to the UK", says Lesley Lawrence, one of the students, who has been living in Spain for around 20 years.
"It's possible that I will change my nationality because of the Brexit vote", she adds. "It depends how things go after they trigger article 50, because until then we don't know how it's going to affect us."
Another student Philip Hubner has owned a house in Spain for 17 years and moved to Mijas full time two years ago. He is now keen to mingle more with the local Spaniards.
"I'm going to make a determined effort to learn the language to integrate with the local people here in Spain. I know a few words, I know how to buy...get a beer, "cerveza", …, "la cuenta por favor", could I have the bill?"
The owner of the school, Richard Parnell, is familiar with both countries. He was born in Britain and has lived in Spain since he was 5 years old.
After the Brexit result he started the course to help his fellow Brits living in Spain to cope with the long term implications.
"I saw the fallout of the vote to leave and I knew that myself, as a foreigner living in Spain, I would have certain problems and I knew that there would be other people. I was thinking of opening an academy anyway, well, why not make a course that would make these people who need to learn Spanish and maybe help them get the Spanish nationality," he explains.
The value of the British currency is another major concern. Many retired expats, live on a U.K. pension that is sent in pounds and pensioners must exchange that income to the Euro, which is used in Spain.
The pound has lost almost a fifth of its value since June 23.
Shortly after the Brexit vote, Anne Hernandez, a decades-long British resident in Mijas, co-founded the 'Brexpats in Spain' association, to try to address those fears.
"Having met people come to us asking for help, we've identified a list of priorities and obviously everybody's individual, but there are general priorities, being for example: health care, pensions, finance and banking, education, and nationality," she says.
The association currently has 2,800 members and has expanded outside the borders of Mijas to other towns along the coast.
The local mayor's office estimates that there are 11,000 British residents in Mijas, out of a total population of 80,000, so the mayor takes a strong interest in their concerns.
An estimated 1.2 million Britons live in other EU countries, many of them in France, Spain and Portugal, according to Britain's House of Commons library.
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15 ноя 2016
