Today, we take the first step towards an ambitious but realistic agreement between the EU and the UK that would fix this issue. Our aim is to rebuild human bridges between young Europeans on both sides of the Channel.”
The willingness of the EU to consider a mobility agreement offers a chance to address this, so it’s vital these negotiations happen and happen quickly – Labour must now be clear that, in government, we will not let this opportunity to help limit the damage leaving the EU has done to our young people pass us by.”
Clearly there is a debate to be had about the costs and the benefits of a youth mobility scheme but I find it utterly depressing that both of the major political parties, one of which will form a government after the next election, do not know the difference between free movement and a limited youth mobility scheme which involves visas
The topic of youth mobility is in both our interests because the more we have youth mobility being on both sides of the channel, the more we increase the probability we will be on good terms because the next generation knows each other very well,
We are not introducing an EU-wide youth mobility scheme – free movement within the EU was ended and there are no plans to introduce it,
Even though Labour has reduced its green objectives, it still wants to decarbonise the grid. There will be a time lag between training, recruitment and reskilling workers that would require an army of engineers for example to do that, and we’re currently far behind. To hit the ground running, this scheme offers us the opportunity to do that, but we would have to continue to fix labour market shortages.”
It is not about conferring to young UK nationals the benefits of the fundamental freedom of movement enjoyed by EU citizens.
The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union has hit young people in the EU and the UK who would like to study, work and live abroad particularly hard
We have spoken about wanting to reduce legal migration and also about wanting to support UK talent and skills and that's why we have a system in place whereby we have a number of agreements with individual EU member states where that works in our interests and we have that rather than a Commission-wide agreement,
This situation has particularly affected the opportunities for young people to experience life on the other side of the Channel and to benefit from youth, cultural, educational, research and training exchanges,
Our agreements provide a valuable route for cultural exchanges providing partner countries are also willing to offer the same opportunities for young British people,
We have successful Youth Mobility Schemes with 13 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and remain open to agreeing them with our international partners, including EU member states,
The objective would be to facilitate youth exchanges, making it easier for young EU citizens to travel, work and live in the UK, with reciprocity for young UK nationals in a member state,
Sweden has pushed for this and we feel this is very important for the youth and students in the EU and the UK, they are the winners.”
Mobility would not be purpose-bound, ie beneficiaries should be able to undertake different activities during that period, such as studying, training, working or travelling, neither would mobility be subject to a quota system,