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cannot rule out the possibility that there is an odd one somewhere living in Europe and so now benefiting by the definition who would not be able to acquire British citizenship when the new Act comes into
In the case of force because of his residence outside the UK). category (iii) except perhaps in a freakish case they would all enjoy freedom of movement in the EC by virtue of their citizenship of the Republic of Ireland anyway.
4.
The argument against change is that it will be necessary to obtain the agreement of our partners in Europe to the redefinition and this would be made much easier if we can say that the new Bill simply covers the same people as before but under their new titles. The mechanics of getting the redefinition through the Community may not be straightforward, and it would be preferable not to add to the complications by making changes in the coverage unless there are strong reasons for doing so. The Republic of Ireland Department would much prefer not to exclude category (iii) from our definition of UK national for EC purposes even though they could derive some benefits from their Irish citizenship. Those who have elected to remain British subjects in this category would usually have done so because they wish to travel on a UK passport, and that provision would be much devalued if they had to take an Irish passport to be sure of their privileges in the EC.
5. The balance of advantage seems to be clearly in favour of covering the same categories in the new terminology for (a) of the
definition.
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6. There may be other factors in the case of Gibraltar part (b) of the definition. We would certainly wish to cover all those Gibraltarians who are covered by the current definition. If, however, as a result of the new Nationality Act Gibraltar revised the Gibraltarian Status Ordinance so as to give Gibraltarian status to all who become citizens of the British Dependent Territories by virtue of a connection with Gibraltar it will in,fact be going one generation beyond those persons covered by (b) in the definition of UK national for EC purposes. I do not think that we can take consideration of this factor further at present. The position of
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/Gibraltarians