Who are we?
We are an independent organisation that makes sure the rights of EU and EEA EFTA citizens and their family members living in the UK and Gibraltar are upheld after the UK left the EU.
We work across the UK and Gibraltar so if you live in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or Gibraltar and are a citizen or a family member of a citizen from one of the 27 EU countries or Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway we’re here to help protect your rights.
What does the IMA do?
We ensure that citizens and their family members who call the UK and Gibraltar home can live, study, and raise families here just as they did before the UK left the EU.
We can challenge public bodies (for example, councils and government departments), when there is unfair treatment of citizens.
Knowing about unfair treatment is very important to us. We get this information by:
• Asking people to tell us about unfair treatment through our complaints portal
• Hearing from other organisations in the UK and the EU about potential problems
We don’t look at individual complaints unless we think it could be part of a bigger problem. Individual experiences are, however, still important to us as they help us to build a bigger picture of where things might be going wrong.
If we think a public body is not upholding the rights of citizens or their family members, we will investigate and if we find problems, we will ask for changes to be made. We also have legal powers to challenge public bodies.
Find out more about us in our Annual Plan.
Why should I join the IMA Citizens’ Panel?
If you are an EU or EEA EFTA citizen or a family member of a citizen, then you know what everyday life is really like in the UK or Gibraltar; you will know whether things have changed for the better or worse after the UK left the EU.
You may also have ideas about the work of the IMA in terms of what we do well and what we could do better. The citizens’ panel is an opportunity for you to share these insights directly with us and help us understand the experience of EU and EEA EFTA citizens.
Who can join the panel?
If you are aged 16 or over, live in the UK or Gibraltar and come from one of the 27 EU countries or Iceland, Liechtenstein, or Norway or are a family member of someone who is, you are eligible to join the IMA Citizens’ Panel.
How does the panel work?
We aim to maintain between 60 and 90 members on the panel and would like to have representation from every EU and EEA EFTA country, covering a broad range of ages and backgrounds.
Since its beginning, the panel has met virtually at least twice a year with members of the IMA Team including our Chief Executive. Following feedback about the future format of meetings from our current panel members, it is likely that going forward the panel will meet on a slightly more frequent ‘drop-in session basis.
You will be asked to give your feedback on specific parts of our work and share what is important to you and your experiences of being an EU and EEA EFTA citizen in the UK and Gibraltar. Your voice is important to us, and it’s your lived experience that can help shape the direction of our future work.
As there are many EU and EEA EFTA citizens and their family members living in the UK and Gibraltar, we will want to change the members of the panel regularly, so panel members will ordinarily be with us for two years, giving opportunity to new panel members with their own insight experience.