The EU has rebuffed a call from pro-Brexit British MPs for a quick deal on mutual residence rights for British and EU expatriates, telling them it's up to their government to launch full-blown divorce talks.
The exchange of letters exposed simmering irritation on both sides of the English Channel before Brexit talks even start.
In a tart reply to a letter from dozens of lawmakers, mostly from Prime Minister Theresa's May's Conservatives, who said that ordinary people were being used as "bargaining chips", European Council President Donald Tusk said he shared their concern over uncertainty but insisted the remedy lay in London, not Brussels.
May herself called this month for talks to end the anxiety facing over 3 million EU citizens in Britain and over a million Britons on the continent.
But she has faced a phalanx of EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who rule out any negotiation until she triggers the exit process under Article 50 of the EU treaty.
She has irked her partners by holding off doing so since the June referendum vote to leave, but says she will do it by March.
Tusk described the MPs' argument that by refusing to open negotiations Barnier was worrying expatriates as "interesting".
"The only problem being that it has nothing to do with reality," he wrote. "Wouldn't you agree that the only source of anxiety and uncertainty is rather the decision on Brexit?
Triggering talks will set Britain a two-year deadline to cut a deal it hopes can protect its trade with the bloc while ending free immigration from the EU. Without a deal, it faces a sharp and disruptive exit which both sides say they do not want.
EU officials said the British letter was seen in Brussels as an attempt to flush out responses from EU states and to test the unity they have so far been able to present against London -- notably by tempting Poland and other Eastern members with big expatriate populations in Britain to break ranks to seek a deal.
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