Stay European is a UK-based grassroots campaign working to regain the rights British people lost through Brexit – in any way that we can.

It is an independent campaign, not set up by any pre-existing pro-European group, but hoping to work collaboratively with all. Stay European was established in January 2020 and has gathered over 150,000 supporters so far.

Our aims

We have three simple campaign goals as decided by our supporters.

★ Regain our rights

When the Brexit transition period ended, British people lost our rights as European citizens overnight regardless of whether we voted for remain or leave. We believe we should have the right to opt in and continue to identify as Europeans, with all the rights and obligations that comes with it, and that one of the most logical mechanism for this is individual citizenship of the EU.

Stay European is open minded about how it would work and understand that it would require some flexibility on the part of the EU. It has previously been suggested that such a scheme could be tied to a fee, as an individual contribution to the EU budget, perhaps equivalent to what we used to pay in per person.

“It is unfortunate that a marginal majority gets to determine the fate of those who wished to remain. Whilst I respect the outcome of the referendum, my choice to consider myself European should also be respected.”

★ Resist Brexit’s effects

We’re only a few years into the experiment that is Brexit and already the effects have been felt throughout the country. Sending things to and from the rest of Europe to the UK is now far more complicated and British companies are struggling to export to EU member states.

With the loss of freedom of movement we face barriers to travelling across Europe, and younger generations are prevented from living and working abroad in the way that we were used to.

Stay European will keep highlighting what is happening with Brexit, as it develops over time, to show just what a disaster it is for British people. We will also continue to defend the rights of our fellow Europeans to continue to live, work and study in Britain.

“It honestly breaks my heart that I won’t have the right to travel and see many friends and family in Europe with ease. I don’t want to lose out on that for the mistakes of my parents’ generation.”

★ Rejoin the EU

We want our rights as European citizens back, but we also believe in the European project as a whole. That is why we stand loudly and proudly for rejoining the EU at the earliest possible opportunity.

We work with a wide range of organisations that support Rejoin, most notably through the National Rejoin March alliance, which has become both an annual march and a year-round campaign.

“My grandfather fought in the first world war and came back determined that we should never be so disunited again. I believe we are catastrophically failing in our duty to our fellow humans in pursuing an agenda of division and isolationism.”

Join us

Sign up to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with everything we do, or join us as a full member to support our work further.

Contact us

Email join@stayeuropean.org