The European Union is calling on Sir Keir Starmer to accept an uncapped youth mobility scheme as part of the government’s reset in relations with Brussels.
In a move that has divided ministers, Brussels does not want to put a maximum annual number on the number of young Europeans who can come and live and work in Britain as part of the scheme. The Treasury wants to agree an “ambitious” scheme while the Home Office has longstanding concerns about its impact on net migration.
The EU also wants European students to be given “equal treatment” with their British counterparts. Brussels wants them to be exempted from having to pay international university fees, which can be double those for domestic students. It is also calling on Starmer to waive the NHS surcharge fee covering the potential cost of medical treatments, which is £776 per year on other youth mobility schemes.
Sir Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, discuss plans for resetting the UK’s relationship with the bloc
CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES
Labour sources said the demands had divided ministers. Some are in favour of the widest possible scheme to boost economic growth, while others are concerned about a potential backlash from voters worried about migration.
Talks are continuing in Brussels on the parameters of a deal and the Europe minister Nick Thomas-Symonds is likely to discuss it when he meets his European counterpart Maros Sefcovic in Brussels on Wednesday.
The “working party on the United Kingdom”, composed of European Commission officials and national diplomats, met on Friday to discuss the EU’s mandate for the talks.
• Keir Starmer ramps up attacks on Brexit to tackle Reform UK threat
European diplomatic sources said that while EU negotiators did not want the scheme to be subject to quotas or caps they envisaged an emergency clause if there was a sudden surge in numbers.
“We do not see the need for setting a quota or cap. What is wrong with our young Europeans? We do not have a problem with young Brits,” a diplomat said. “It will not be a free-for-all as there will be conditions as well as the age and time of stay limits.”
The UK has youth mobility schemes with about a dozen countries, all of which have an annual cap.
However, some are set at generous levels. The Australian scheme allows more than 40,000 18 to 35 year olds to come and work in the UK for up to three years from a total eligible pool of about five million.
British officials point out that European numbers will be much higher because the EU has a much larger population. More than 70 million young people would be eligible to apply, making an uncapped scheme unbalanced.
More than 70 million young people would be eligible to apply
MARK DRAISEY/GETTY IMAGES
But the Treasury is understood to be backing an ambitious programme believing it would help boost growth. In an interview with The Times in September Rachel Reeves said an “ambitious” migration deal would be “good for the economy, good for growth and good for business”.
At the time she refused to say what, if any, cap should be put on the scheme. But the Home Office is said to be pushing back against agreeing to an uncapped scheme fearing that it could damage the government’s pledge to reduce net migration.
The government said: “We are working together with the EU to create a balanced youth experience scheme which will create new opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel”, adding that both sides had agreed last May that “any final scheme must be time-limited and capped”. “We will not give a running commentary on ongoing talks,” it said.
However, the text of the agreement did not talk about a cap. It stated that the deal should ensure that “the overall number of participants is acceptable to both sides”.
Both sides are hoping to reach a deal early in the new year before the second UK/EU summit in the spring. The plan would be for the scheme to be up and running by 2027.
UK and EU officials have stressed that the talks were at an early stage and the details were still being negotiated, including the age range when young people would qualify and the length of time they would be able to stay in the UK.
The two sides are also looking to agree a plan for Britain to rejoin the EU’s Erasmus exchange scheme, which would allow British students to study for a year in continental European universities. It was abandoned after Brexit by the Conservative government, which concluded that it did not provide good value for money.