New youth mobility scheme could see Europeans allowed to stay in the UK for longer than a year

Young Europeans could be allowed to live in the UK for more than a year under new proposals, EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has indicated.

This youth mobility scheme, a reciprocal agreement between the UK and EU, would allow both young Brits and Europeans to study, travel, and work abroad. It is intended to replicate the UK’s existing youth mobility schemes, including those between Australia and Japan.

The proposal comes after polls revealed that two-thirds of Britons would be in favour of such an EU scheme: granting Brits up to two years in Europe and Europeans up to two years in the UK.

However, negotiations surrounding the length of the scheme are ongoing with Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, favouring a 12-month limit to curb immigration figures. In contrast, EU countries have advocated for an agreement which would allow those aged 18 to 30 to live abroad for more than 12 months.

The proposal indicated that … the arrangement would have an upper limit for arrivals, but this has yet to be specified

The scheme would not be the first agreement between Britain and the EU post-Brexit. An arrangement to enable the exchange of criminal information, such as fingerprints and facial recognition, between countries has already been constructed.

Reestablishing firm ties with the EU through such action has attracted criticism from both the Conservative Party and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who implied that it could increase levels of crime.

Thomas-Symonds chose to emphasise how cooperative schemes would aid law enforcement measures, giving agents “additional tools […] to do their excellent work”.

The proposal indicated that, like similar schemes, the arrangement would have an upper limit for arrivals, but this has yet to be specified.

Existing schemes, including the one with Australia, have seen less than a quarter of the upper limit of young people moving to the UK. Thomas-Symonds denied suggestions that emigration could be unrestrained, citing the limited movement between the UK, Andorra, and Uruguay in youth mobility schemes, as a similar operation.

The EU Relations Minister also referenced the possibility of farming arrangements with the EU, namely enabling British farmers to grow genetically modified produce, as accepted in the EU. The EU Commission published this proposition, which would simply regulate checks for British produce imported to be sold in Europe.

This number of UK-EU proposals, though yet to be finalised, signal to some a strengthening political relationship between the two parties.