EU Wants To Ease Youth Movement To And From UK

The EU on Thursday called for talks on restoring young people's ability to move between Britain and the bloc to live, study and work post-Brexit -- though London immediately poured cold water on the ide

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2024) The EU on Thursday called for talks on restoring young people's ability to move between Britain and the bloc to live, study and work post-Brexit -- though London immediately poured cold water on the idea.

When Britain formally left the European Union in 2020, one of the changes most felt by citizens on both sides was the loss of the freedom to move across the Channel at will for study or work.

Now, the European Commission says it is time to repair that -- at least for those aged 18 to 30 -- and wants the 27 EU nations to approve talks after London expressed interest in youth mobility.

Britain left the European student exchange scheme Erasmus after Brexit, but the commission said that, should the UK wish to rejoin, it remained "open" to the idea.

But the UK government's response to the proposal was cool, saying it preferred bilateral schemes with individual countries.

The commission's proposal envisages setting university fees in Britain and the bloc at the same level for EU and UK students, as before Brexit.

According to the EU executive, tuition for non-UK residents at British universities now averages 22,000 Pounds ($27,400) a year, compared to around 9,000 pounds for residents.

Under the plan, young EU and UK citizens would be able to stay in the country of their choice for up to four years and visa fees would not be "excessive".

Currently a young person from the EU seeking to study in the UK must pay £490 while a skilled worker visa costs between £719 and £1,639, the commission said.

There is also an extra cost for healthcare running into hundreds of pounds that the commission wants to scrap.

Unlike visas for work or study, which are often limited to specific institutions or jobs, the idea would be that young people can be free to move between the UK and EU countries and undertake different activities.

- Signal to Labour? -

Commission executive vice president Maros Sefcovic said Brexit dealt a blow to young people's mobility, calling the proposal "the first step towards an ambitious but realistic agreement between the EU and the UK that would fix this issue.

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Asked about the plan during an EU summit, commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said it reflected a "much more constructive" relationship between Brussels and London, post-Brexit.

"We know that we share values and we look at the challenges of today with the same angle," she said. "And there are certainly topics where we can have a closer collaboration."

"The topic of youth mobility is in both our interest," she said, arguing that it would help build ties between people "on both sides of the Channel" for the next generation.

But London did not appear keen, with a government spokeswoman indicating it favours its current approach of brokering such agreements with individual countries rather than the European Union as a whole.

"We have spoken about wanting to reduce legal migration and also about wanting to support UK talent and skills," the spokeswoman said.

"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," a spokeswoman said.

Some in Westminster viewed the commission's move as an overture to Britain's opposition Labour Party, which is expected to pursue closer relations with the EU if, as expected, it wins a general election due later this year.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has ruled out Britain rejoining the EU but has pledged to renegotiate the Brexit deal.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, published this week, that the UK should "develop closer foreign and security cooperation with the EU".

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