EU may
accept 12-month work visas for ‘youth experience’ scheme with UK
Exclusive:
Post-Brexit plan would allow British and European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel
and work freely
Lisa
O'Carroll
Fri 25 Apr
2025 16.53 BST
The EU is
prepared to make major concessions in negotiations to allow British and
European 18- to 30-year-olds to travel and work freely, potentially paving the
way for a long-awaited reset with Brussels.
A scheme
that would allow thousands of young Europeans to live and work in the UK has
been seen as a key EU demand in reaching a post-Brexit pact incorporating
defence, energy and migration.
It is
understood that EU member states could now be willing to limit work visas to as
little as 12 months, with quotas on numbers and restrictions on the sectors EU
citizens could work in.
They are
also open to a “one in, one out” style plan being considered by the home
secretary.
EU sources
said the scheme would be rebranded the “youth experience” programme in order to
eliminate any suggestion that it was reopening immigration routes for EU
citizens wanting to live and work in the UK.
Asked about
the prospect of a youth mobility scheme on Friday, a Downing Street
spokesperson said: “Both sides are discussing a wide range of issues, which is
entirely normal for a negotiation.”
The EU first
proposed a youth mobility scheme that would allow young people to work or study
for up to four years in each other’s countries in April 2024, but it was
rejected by Labour and the Conservatives.
After a year
of discussion, sources say it is such a priority for key EU member states
including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, that
compromises need to be made.
One source
said a one-year visa with an option of a further one- or two-year extension
could land better politically.
The UK
already takes part in a youth mobility scheme, which allows people from 12
non-EU nations to work in the country for a two- or three-year period. Home
Office data shows just 23,000 young people came into the UK as part of the
scheme in 2023, with 9,900 of them from Australia.
Signalling a
melting away of Eurosceptic resistance to any special youth visa deal with the
EU, the Brexit campaigner and former government minister Steve Baker has given
it his backing, saying it would be a “good thing” and “absolutely would not
amount to a return to EU free movement”.
But the
former chair of the European Research Group called the controversy over the
scheme a “red herring” designed to distract voter attention from a food and
drink standards deal that is also being mooted, which he says would put a US
trade agreement in jeopardy.
The
environment secretary, Steve Reed, insisted the government was not going to
“breach” its manifesto commitments on freedom of movement, telling Times Radio:
“We’re very clear in our manifesto that there won’t be any return to the single
market, the customs union or freedom of movement, and that remains our
position.”
Speaking in
Washington before a meeting with the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, the
chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the UK’s trading relationship with the EU was
“arguably even more important” than its relationship with the US.
The German
ambassador to the UK has said he was “really optimistic” about the prospects of
a youth mobility scheme deal being reached, after a meeting between Keir
Starmer and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on
Thursday. Ambassadors in Europe will be debriefed next Wednesday.
Miguel
Berger told the BBC Radio 4: “I am now pretty optimistic that we are moving in
a good direction.
“It would
make it possible for young people with parents with a lower income to
experience the possibility to work abroad, to learn a language, and we would
like to have this in both directions,” Berger said.
“There is a
very serious and dedicated preparatory work for the summit on May 19,” he said
referring to the UK-EU summit to be held in London next month.
Baker said:
“To have a capped, time-limited scheme for European young people would be a
good thing, and absolutely would not amount to a return to EU free movement,
which is uncapped for unlimited duration and requires nations to treat European
citizens as their own. Any confusion over this should be quickly cleared up.”
But he urged
that more attention be paid to the possibility of a sanitary and phytosanitary
(SPS) deal to eliminate checks on food and drink exports, saying anything that
obliged the UK to follow EU rules again would compromise a US trade deal and
economic growth to sustain pension payouts 10 years down the line.
Baker said:
“While we are arguing about this complete red herring, the UK looks set to take
EU rules on food and products, which will put us in breach of our obligations
under the Pacific Rim trade deal and rule out doing a trade deal with the USA.
That matters, because that’s where the economic growth is going to come from.
And without growth, we will default on pension obligations.”
Labour and
the EU are working on seven pillars that would then feed into a declaration
known as a “common understanding”, which would be followed by detailed
negotiations to hammer out the specifics.
“No
decisions are expected to be made during the summit itself. At most, there
could be a mutual commitment to exploring possible avenues for an agreement on
these issues,” said a EU source.
The seven
areas are: defence and security, carbon pricing, migration, youth experience,
energy, and fishing, but some groups say the talks lack ambition.
Some member
states are also making a “strong ask” for the UK to return to the Erasmus+
university and vocational exchange programme and a deal to allow citizens to
study in each others universities paying home fees. This is something of a
non-starter for the UK because of the imbalance of students coming to Britain
in the past compared to British studying in the EU.
An official
business consultation body set up under the Brexit trade and cooperation
agreement has called on the government to go further in its negotiations and
seek the removal of bans on the export of British seed potatoes to the EU, of
barriers on batch testing of pharmaceuticals, and mutual recognition agreements
on professional qualifications.
The Domestic
Advisory Group is also asking for removal of barriers for touring musicians and
artists and their support staff.
In a
submission to the UK government it also calls for an agreement to allow easier
access to veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland and a return to joint
regulation for chemicals.
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