A judge in Amsterdam has agreed to ask the European Court of Justice preliminary questions about the consequences of the UK's departure from the European Union on the citizenship rights of Britons living in Europe.
In a decision that could have consequences for some one million Britons living outside the UK but within the EU, the judge said in a written ruling that "there has to be more clarity about the consequences of Brexit for EU citizenship".
UK citizens who live in the Netherlands went to the court last month in a bid to retain their EU citizenship rights after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.
Lawyers for the Dutch state have dismissed their case as a legal fiction.