’There are just so many questions’

PROFILE

BREXIT continues to confuse, perplex and work its way steadily closer.

For us in Britain it’s difficult enough to imagine what is liable to happen and what we should do to prepare – but for congregations in the Church of Scotland spread across Europe, the question of how Britain’s exit from the European Union might aff ect them is a very real and potentially frightening prospect.

“It suddenly stunned me that the UK – the country of the Magna Carta, with a strong commitment to democracy – was depriving me of a fundamental right: the right to vote in a matter which had the potential of upending my life, professionally and personally, and the lives of millions.”

Jacquelyn MacLennan is a partner in a major global law firm, with around 2000 lawyers.

A Scot, she was stunned to find out she, and others in her situation – British people living and working in Europe, who’d lived outside the UK for more than 15 years – were not to be allowed to vote in the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, and that their futures were to be decided by other people.

“I felt that I could not stay on the sidelines. And that resulted in a challenge to the Referendum Act, in a case where I was not the lawyer, but the plaintiff, along with war veteran and campaigner for voting rights Harry Shindler. We were represented by Aidan O’Neill QC, appropriately both a Scottish advocate and English barrister.

He and the team acting with him (all pro bono) were phenomenal and the case was accelerated from the High Court to the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. But we lost. And as everyone knows, the vote in the referendum was very narrow ‘leave’.

“Who knows what might have happened if our challenge had been successful, and the vote widened?

“To me, the decision to stop us voting seemed doubly unjust because I remain very connected to the UK, with family and property there, I work from the London office of my law firm very regularly and I am a visiting fellow at the University of Edinburgh. I head my firm’s Global Pro Bono Practice, and am often critical of countries for their lack of respect of the rule of law. So I felt I had to do something.”

Jacquelyn was born in Inverness and remembers her early years at West Parish Church, under minister the Rev Thomas Swanston, with fondness.

“Tom Swanston was quite fire and brimstone as I remember him, but the church was important in my life. We had an active Friday evening club for teenagers to play badminton and table tennis, and I remember fun weekends canoeing, staying in an old manse which had become an outdoor centre in Strathconon. The leaders did a good job in not forcing religion down young throats but making church (though maybe not the sermons) somewhere I associated with lively activities.

“I went to the Central School in Inverness, where my father went before me, and my Invernessian nieces and nephews followed me. Then on to the High School, a comprehensive school covering a very mixed area, socially, which really educated me for life. After that I studied law at Edinburgh University.

“I covered a wild mix of subjects in my law degree, and it was hard to see where I might be heading. I really enjoyed International and European law subjects and thought I was destined for an academic life. But an extremely eminent Professor gave me very definite instructions to get qualified before making any decisions – and who was I to disagree? So I found myself in a very old, but also forward looking, Edinburgh firm, Shepherd & Wedderburn WS, where I received an excellent training and learned skills which have stood me in good stead my whole professional career.

“I worked on the first ‘test case’ on whether the pertussis vaccine caused brain damage, which brought lawyers from many countries into the Court of Session in Edinburgh to hear the arguments. I believed then, as I believe now, that Scots law and Scots lawyers can hold their own anywhere in the world.

“But then another very eminent person, this time Sir David Edward, who became the UK Judge in the European Court of Justice, advised me to apply to the European Commission in Brussels for a training period or ‘stage’, and again I followed instructions. I could never have believed that this would result in me still working and living in Brussels 30 years later.”

Even now, no one is really sure what is going to happen. There are just so many questions and apparently so few answers.

While in Brussels, Jacquelyn had an interview with Professor Ian Forrester QC [European law specialist and elder at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland, profiled in Life and Work in September 2016] and she became a lawyer with his firm at the time.

“Sadly, he is now likely to be remembered as the last UK judge at the General Court”, Jacquelyn says.

The Church has always been a strong influence for Jacqui. Her husband, Duncan Wallace, is a son of the manse and has strong ties with the Iona Community.

“I met my husband at university. He’s also a lawyer and we moved from Scotland to Brussels for permanent jobs together. We have three children, who were born in Brussels, went to school at the Lycée Français in Brussels, and then chose university in the UK. They each have diff erent university-oriented lives at the moment: one a visiting researcher in data visualisation/analytics with the University of Hong Kong, one carrying out research in human rights law with the Global Studies Institute of the University of Geneva, and the youngest in her second year of a psychology degree in Bristol. Their outlook is naturally very European, very global. Like that of so many Scots.”

Jacquelyn is an elder with St Andrew’s Church in Brussels, and the congregation there has had a hard time coming to grips with the Brexit vote in the UK.

“Our congregation in Brussels is incredibly diverse. We have more than 35 nationalities. For many of our worshippers, Brexit was not directly relevant. But they were concerned for our minister and his family, and their many friends who evidently are aff ected”, she says.

“The majority of the congregation I would say reacted in the same way as I did – shock, horror, concern for what this would mean for themselves, but also for the UK and for the EU. Quite a number talked of the risk to further peace, to economic prosperity, and the impact on young people; also the risk of xenophobia in the UK and the risk of further nationalism destroying the EU. I certainly hope that (Emmanuel) Macron’s election in France and his vision for the EU’s future will carry the day.

“Even now, no one is really sure what is going to happen. There are just so many questions and apparently so few answers.

“Will Brexit actually happen? If it happens, what will it look like? What will it mean for those of us living in Belgium for our pension rights, health care, right to work, right to study, right of residence – what will it mean for our families? Even if we have rights to work, will companies want to employ UK citizens? And will we be able to move to other EU countries? For professionals – doctors, lawyers, architects – will our UK qualifications be recognised?

Photo: iStock

“Quite a number of the congregation work for the EU institutions: what could happen to their jobs? Everyone was and is worried about being able to travel easily between the EU and UK without long lines for passport control!

“What about the value of our savings and pensions – will there be more currency volatility and what will that mean in individual cases? And thinking of the worst case, what will this mean in the event of death – increased complications in terms of how an estate is handled where there are assets in both and EU country and the UK? And fundamentally – do those of us living in Belgium and the EU more widely need to take a new EU nationality to continue living and working there?

“In my view it is more likely than not that Brexit will go ahead, but the shape of Brexit is still very unclear, as is the timing of when it might actually happen. At the moment Brexit means only opacity, confusion and high levels of stress for the British community here in Belgium and in the EU – and also for EU citizens living in the UK. It is good that in the agreement reached at the end of the year, the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens residing in the EU at the time of Brexit look like they will be protected. But nothing is agreed until it all is agreed.”

Jacquelyn vividly remembers the morning of the referendum result. “As you can imagine I was devastated. I thought the vote would be close, but I had never dreamt that it would be for Brexit. My mother called very early and three generations of the family literally wept together. That evening, we had a barbecue in the garden, with maybe 15 diff erent nationalities present, colleagues, friends, neighbours – all off ering sympathy and support, and particular concern for the Scots who clearly did not want that outcome.”

Jacquelyn, along with the rest of the congregation, has been trying to figure out how Brexit is liable to aff ect the church she loves. “The Kirk Session has had a discussion on this, and focused on the need to follow developments regarding work permits and rights of free movement of citizens, to ensure that the minister is properly prepared and protected.

“Churches in the EU generally will need to determine whether existing ministers, or newly appointed ministers moving to the EU after Brexit will need work permits, if they do not have EU nationality.

“I would imagine Brexit in the long term may make it more difficult for ministers to move to EU charges, not just because of restrictions which might apply to them, but also as there may be restrictions on their partners working freely, or restrictions on the rights of their extended family to live and work in the EU.

“The Kirk Session also expressed concern post Brexit in the way that the UK is viewed by the rest of the world – the phrase ‘Fortress Britain’ is often heard, and how the decision might encourage the rise of the far right in Europe.

“The fear in the immediate aftermath concerned the Netherlands and France, but now Austria, Hungary and Poland and Angela Merkel’s losses in the last German election are current examples.

“Talk in the congregation has been around these issues, and personal concerns. There have been lots of stories swapped about practical ways to meet the Belgian requirements for citizenship – or about getting Irish nationality which is an option for some. There are quite a number of UK citizens in our congregations who have lived in Belgium for 30 or 40 years.

“Pointing out the problems of Brexit is not scaremongering, no matter what some politicians try to tell you. The UK is going to continue trading with the EU, doing joint projects with universities and research bodies in the EU, people are still going to go on holiday there – it just won’t be easy. EU rules will still apply to business, the UK just won’t have a seat at the table to influence them.

“One thing that is hard for people in the UK to realise is that Brexit may be the number one issue in the UK, but in the EU, it comes further down the list of priorities, maybe fourth or fifth. However the reports of what might result from a hard Brexit – no customs union, no single market – are quite correct. If that is the outcome, then as a lawyer, I can tell you that what are sometimes painted as ‘doomsday scenario’ predictions are simply statements of fact. Maybe not food shortages, but delays in deliveries for fruit and vegetables and flowers and imported goods generally coming from the EU, and price increases to take account of customs duties and administrative changes. Flying off for a weekend will be a completely diff erent option if flight landing rights are lost. And I’ll not start on the issues that I see for business.”

St Andrews Brussels by David Edgar

Jacquelyn vividly remembers the morning of the referendum result. “As you can imagine I was devastated. I thought the vote would be close, but I had never dreamt that it would be for Brexit.

Brexit is forcing Brits living and working abroad to look at very difficult, and hitherto unimagined decisions, and churches are looking for ways to help.

“Churches on both sides should be thinking of the potential need for more pastoral care – to be ready to support members of the congregation who are fearful right now, or members who may be in difficult situations post-Brexit”, says Jacquelyn.

“At the very least Churches should be ready with sources of practical advice for individuals. One person asked me recently if UK churches should be getting ready to welcome and support returning deportees – I can only hope that will never be necessary. However, I am starting the process to take Belgian citizenship, which I never believed would be necessary.”

This article appears in the March 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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