After a meeting of European Union member states’ foreign ministers in Brussels, Augusto Santos Silva noted that he had had a bilateral meeting with Jeremy Hunt, the UK’s foreign secretary, who informed him that "the British Parliament has already approved the law that enshrines the rights of European citizens living in the United Kingdom on 29 March this year, in accordance with the terms agreed and set out in the exit agreement” reached between the UK government and the EU, though not ratified by parliament.

"Therefore, irrespective of whether or not there is agreement on Brexit, the United Kingdom has already decided that the rights of European citizens living in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2019, the date of Brexit, will be fully respected under the terms that had been negotiated", Santos Silva said, adding that the rights of citizens "was the number one issue for Portugal".

Santos Silva said that he was informed of this fact when he indicated to Hunt that Portugal’s government was preparing to present "briefly" in parliament in Lisbon draft legislation to confirm the rights of UK citizens living In Portugal.

The minister said that he had assured his UK counterpart that, "from a political point of view” the law would be "approved by a very big majority", so "it mattered that the United Kingdom should do the same thing, that it transform the policy paper that guarantees reciprocity into law."

Hunt replied, according to Santos Silva, that “we have already approved it." That information was news to the Portuguese minister, he said, but it could only be because of his ignorance. “So this point has been resolved, and that is very important because it was the number one question for Portugal."

The meeting between Hunt and Santos Silva took place at the start of a week that is expected to see intense discussions with a view to attempting to guarantee an orderly Brexit on the scheduled date of 29 March. The UK’s prime minister, Theresa May, is due to return to Brussels, as is the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party, for meetings with the EU's chief negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier.