.svg)
Brussels will push for young Europeans to be able to bring their families to Britain as part of a future youth mobility scheme, The Daily Dazzling Dawn understands.
Talks over Sir Keir Starmer’s reset deal broke up without an agreement on making it easier for young Europeans to live, work and study in Britain for a limited time, and vice versa.
At the press conference, Sir Keir insisted that Labour’s manifesto red lines that there would be no return to free movement would hold. London has conceded a promise to discuss both youth mobility and rejoining the Erasmus + exchange programme in future.
EU diplomats said Britain had not secured any promises to shelve demands from Brussels that dependents of young Europeans should be allowed to join them in Britain. London and Brussels are also still discussing the size of any cap on numbers arriving in the UK and whether they would qualify for benefits.
‘Kicked the can down the road’
“They did not agree on that. Just kicked the can down the road,” an EU diplomat said after the reset deal was done. It prompted fears that the Prime Minister will ultimately cave in to the demands.
He has already made the major concession of a 12-year fishing deal in return for closer alignment on food and agricultural standards, which will allow for fewer border checks.
The youth mobility scheme has been rechristened the “youth experience scheme” in a sign of Sir Keir’s willingness to do a deal. A concrete deal on Erasmus was not secured as no agreement was reached on the level of tuition fees European students would pay to study at UK universities.
EU capitals want their nationals to pay the same as British students, rather than higher foreign fees.
Similar arrangement
The youth mobility scheme mirrors a similar arrangement with Australia and New Zealand, which allows young people to live and work in the UK for up to two years, with the possibility of a one-year extension.
Asked what would be an acceptable number of young people coming to Britain, Sir Keir said: “On the youth experience scheme, obviously this gives an opportunity for young people in the UK to work, travel, volunteer, au pair, you name it in Europe and the same the other way.
“And it doesn’t deal with university fees ... so there is no change there. It is that experience, it is time-limited, the numbers [are yet] to be agreed so it is not an uncapped scheme and it will be a visa scheme.
“So everything will now be done through mutual agreement as we go forward.”
