European negotiators are open to capping a post-Brexit scheme enabling young European Union citizens to live and work temporarily in the United Kingdom at 150,000 places a year, in a “reset” deal deepening EU-UK relations.
Talks between officials from Brussels and London had been intensifying in an effort to seal an agreement at a summit due to take place next month. However, that deadline has been postponed, probably until the autumn, following British prime minister Keir Starmer’s decision to resign under pressure from his likely replacement, Andy Burnham.
The outline of the reset deal does not include concessions from the British government to end the practice of charging steep international fees to third-level students from EU countries.
Any EU-UK youth exchange scheme will not apply to Irish young people, because they can already travel and work in Britain under the terms of the Common Travel Area. Irish third-level students pay the same “home fees” as UK citizens when studying in British colleges for the same reason.
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College fees were one of the most contentious aspects of months-long negotiations and had been parked to avoid derailing the wider agreement.
Four sources in Brussels and London said the idea had been for the UK to make a commitment that both sides would revisit the question of college fees, or “equal access to higher education”, for EU citizens who wanted to study in the UK.
Separately, negotiators from the European Commission had indicated Brussels would accept a cap of 150,000 places a year on a post-Brexit “youth mobility” scheme, according to three sources briefed on the discussions.
The visa programme would allow young EU citizens to live and work in the UK for about three years. The scheme would likely be open to people aged 30 or younger and permit UK citizens to travel to European countries to live and work for the same period.
British negotiators want a tight cap on the number of European citizens who could avail of the scheme each year, possibly set at 50,000, due to concerns that a large influx would inflate politically sensitive immigration figures.
EU officials had resisted putting a limit on the proposed scheme, but it is understood that, in recent weeks, the commission pitched a cap of 150,000. Haggling over the size of the cap was expected to see the two sides meet somewhere in the middle.
EU member states are pushing hard for a broad youth mobility scheme and concessions on university student fees. The Labour government is hoping for an economic boost from an agreement removing checks on the trade of agri-food products between Britain and the EU, which will be included in the reset deal.
The turnover in Downing Street has injected uncertainty into preparatory talks for a political agreement between the UK government and the European Commission. EU officials are waiting to see the outcome of Burnham’s leadership push and whether it will be a quick, uncontested ascension.
In such a scenario, a summit to agree on the details of a reset deal may still not take place until October or November, said one senior commission source. There is a recognition in Brussels that the new British prime minister may wish to expand the scope of the agreement to other areas.
