PRAGUE, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Czech cabinet approved a bill to deal with Czech-British relations in case Britain leaves the EU without a deal in March, said Deputy PM and Interior Minister Jan Hamacek after a cabinet meeting Monday afternoon.
The bill outlined an interim period till the end of 2020, during which the Czech government would guarantee the same approach to British citizens in selected areas as if they still kept their status of EU citizens, Czech News Agency quoted Hamacek as saying.
The cabinet is going to propose that the Chamber of Deputies pass the bill in a sped-up procedure in the first reading.
Without the bill, some 5,000 out of 8000 British nationals on the Czech labour market would end up with a status of non-EU foreigners. They would not be able to continuously work in the Czech Republic or automatically join local healthcare and welfare systems.
"Failure to pass the bill would also threaten some 40,000 Czech citizens living in Britain," said Hamacek, adding that all measures proposed by the Czech cabinet are conditional on reciprocity on the part of Britain.
Britain's departure from the EU is due on March 29. The key question now is whether the British parliament will support British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal in a vote later this month. Without a deal, Britain's departure threatens to be hard Brexit, which raises apprehensions of an uncertain future among British firms and people in the EU and vice versa.
