On 18 April 2024, the European Commission proposed to the European Council to open negotiations with the United Kingdom to facilitate a post-Brexit youth mobility agreement. Such an arrangement would make it easier for young EU and UK citizens to live, work and study in the UK and the EU respectively.
Addressing the proposals, Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight said: “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. 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.”
However, on Friday evening the UK government responded and appeared to categorically rule out any post-Brexit mobility deal with the EU, with a government spokesperson stating: “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.”
The proposed EU scheme would not exactly replicate the free movement regime, as the permission granted would be time-limited, and UK participants would only be able to stay in the EU country that accepted them. However, it would significantly reduce immigration controls on young people moving between the UK and EU, with no recommended cap on overall numbers.
Background to the proposal
According to the Commission, the withdrawal of the UK from the EU has resulted in decreased mobility between the EU and the UK. 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.
The proposal seeks to address the main barriers to mobility for young people experienced today and create a right for young people to travel from the EU to the UK and vice-versa more easily and for a longer period of time.
What did the EU propose?
The EU’s proposed agreement would be at a bloc-wide level, not a collection of parallel bilateral deals at the level of the Member States. The European Commission has said the deal would be a limited arrangement, not a restoration of free movement.
Th EU’s envisaged agreement on youth mobility would include a number of conditions, such as:
