One of the many downsides of Brexit has been the erection of barriers to travel in Europe. Those of us who hitchhiked and inter-railed round Europe in our youth can now spend no longer than 90 days within any 180 days visa-free in the EU. Worse still is the fact that in leaving the EU, the UK chose to leave the Erasmus scheme. Erasmus is a scheme that funds and supports exchanges between all kinds of European partners—vocational students and trainees, university students, professional colleagues—with a view to learning from one another by spending time in another EU country, sharing experiences and expertise. I use the word ‘chose’ advisedly: we could have remained in the Erasmus scheme as an associate member, like Iceland, Norway and Turkey, but our government chose not to do so.
However, change is in the air! In the last nine months or so news has been filtering out of a different scheme that could facilitate travel and work in the European Union for young people—the European Youth Mobility Scheme. This scheme would enable young people from the age of 18-32 or thereabouts to spend a defined period of time, probably up to 4 years, in a member state country, working or studying, after which they would return home.
The news was that the EU were very keen that the UK should join this scheme, while our government was holding back, concerned about our immigration figures and the possibility that participation in the scheme would be seen as allowing freedom of movement. Clearly, this scheme does not allow freedom of movement: the European Youth Mobility Visa will be for a defined period of time, and there may be quotas for the numbers of young people allowed entry. This is the case with some of the countries with whom we already have a Youth Mobility Scheme—yes, there are existing schemes with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, to name just a few, meaning that the government has experience of such schemes, a template if you like, which it could easily tweak to set up a similar scheme with the European Union.
After months of pressure from a growing swell of largely backbench MPs and the public in support of the scheme, the news broke in mid-May that the government would finally agree that the UK should participate in the European Mobility Scheme (though Prime Minister Keir Starmer prefers the name Youth Experience Scheme). This was announced at the important EU/UK summit on 19th May, and a document called a Common Understanding was drawn up, formalising not only this, but many other points, which will now be the subject of intense negotiations over the next few months. Not only did the government commit to the UK participating in the Youth Mobility Scheme, but also to the UK rejoining the next round of the Erasmus scheme, known as Erasmus +.
Both of these developments are really good news for our young people, who have lost such a lot in recent years through Brexit and the global pandemic. They are indicative, too, of a real ‘change of tone’ in UK/EU relations, a phrase used more than once at the June meeting on the European Mobility/Experience scheme hosted by the European Parliamentary Liaison Office. However, there is some way to go yet before the details of either scheme will be negotiated and finalised, and particularly with the Youth Mobility Scheme, quite a lot of variables, such as the period of time for which such visas will be granted. All of which means that those of us keen to see these schemes go live need to keep an eye on the detail and not take our hand off the tiller just yet.
