EU court rejects appeal by Britons on EU citizenship

The Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday rejected appeals by three British citizens seeking to retain their EU citizenship.

"The loss of the status of citizen of the European Union, and consequently the loss of the rights attached to that status, is an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union," the court ruled.

It noted that a majority voted in favour of withdrawal from the EU in Britain's 2016 referendum. The Brexit withdrawal agreement had been signed by both sides in January 2020, and the EU Council had approved the agreement at the end of that month.

Britain had finally withdrawn from the EU on January 31, 2020, the court said.

The three plaintiffs contested the Brexit agreement and the EU's approval, claiming that they had been deprived of their rights as EU citizens. The court rejected their claim as inadmissible.