EU youth scheme: no benefit for Britons

When the prime minister goes to his summit with the EU in Brussels on 20 November, one of his top agenda items will be the Youth Mobility scheme. It does not look like good news for young British workers.

Burnham and his ministers are already campaigning to restore freedom of movement between the UK and the EU. That wasn’t in the Labour 2024 election manifesto and they don’t mention the terms that the EU would demand.

Demands

In every part of the UK-EU reset agreement, the EU is demanding payments from the UK. In the youth mobility scheme this would take the form of a number of subsidies. The EU Commission wants EU youths up to the age of 30 to be able to freely move to the UK.

Not only that, the EU wants them to benefit from subsidised university fees, access to UK student loans , free NHS access and the ability to apply to bring their family with them.

Jeopardise

Towards the end of October, Brussels began to brief that the demand for EU students to pay the same fees as home students would not be their top priority as it might jeopardise other aspects of the reset. But Burnham’s bragging about his aims may well have already alerted people to the probable risks.

‘This would cost British universities £3 billion a year in lost tuition fees.’

If EU students were to pay the same fees as home students, this would cost British universities £3 billion a year in lost tuition fees, according a report by the Great British Business Council analysing the likely cost of the EU scheme (and the whole reset).

Failure by UK negotiators to resist EU demands would damage the strained finances of many British universities. It’s hard to see why they would do so, even if the government wants a deal with the EU.

For example the UK has a youth mobility scheme with Canada. But a Canadian studying at a UK university would pay international student fees.

Other aspects of the UK’s relationship with the EU are unequal. As things currently stand, all EU citizens can come to the UK for six months even though the EU only allows UK nationals to spend 90 days in a 180-day period in the EU without a visa.

Access

This scheme is not really about mobility but about EU citizens gaining access to employment and a range of subsidies which are not available to other overseas citizens. The impact on young British people will be profound.

The latest official statistics estimate the unemployment rate for the age 16 to 24 group at 15.6 per cent. Almost one million were not in employment, education or training.

The EU youth scheme would open this group to competition from 3 million unemployed EU youths for work, and from 19 million EU students for university places.