A staggering 64million EU residents would be eligible to move to the UK under a ‘youth mobility scheme’ set to be discussed tonight by Starmer and his EU counterparts, it has been revealed.
Dubbed the ‘backpackers and baristas deal’, the youth mobility scheme would see freedom of movement opened up between the EU and UK for people aged 18-30.
Critics say it is a betrayal of Brexit and is the beginning of a slippery slope back to freedom of movement, whereas proponents argue it would give young people freedom to study and work abroad.
The EU has been pushing for the scheme for nearly a year, and it has featured prominently in Starmer’s push for a ‘reset of relations’ with Britain’s former trading bloc.
As Sir Keir heads to Brussels tonight to dine with the EU’s leaders (becoming the first UK prime minister to join a European Union summit since Brexit), Facts4EU and GB News have been crunching the data behind a potential youth mobility scheme.
It found the number of EU nationals between 18 and 30 (64 million) to be marginally smaller than the entire population of Britain (68 million).
Number of EU youths who would benefit from a youth mobility scheme versus the number of UK youths who would benefit
Facts4EU
This is not how many people will come to the UK if the scheme is adopted but the total potential number who could come.
The research highlights what many critics have been arguing- that the EU gets a much better deal than the UK.
This is partly confirmed when the statistics are broken down via age group. In the EU, there are over 5million 30-year-olds who could benefit from the scheme, likewise 29-year-olds and 28-year-olds.
In Britain, there are roughly 900,000 people in the same age groups who could use freedom afforded in the scheme, about 6.5 times times less people.
By agegroup: Number of EU youths who would benefit from a youth mobility scheme versus the number of UK youths who would benefit
Facts4EU
The EU is pushing for other details in the scheme that critics say will harm Britain. Von Der Leyen’s bureaucrats want the UK to drop its visa fees for EU nationals which would mean a sharp drop in revenue for the UK.
Visas are generally £490 for a student visa. For those coming to work, visas for a skilled worker cost from £719 to £1,639. Employers also pay the costs related to complying with the sponsorship system, all of which would be lost.
For 50,000 students, that’s £25million revenue lost. For 50,000 skilled workers, that’s £60million lost revenue.
Another significant concession the EU is seeking from Britain is that UK universities and colleges would no longer be able to charge the higher, overseas-level tuition fees to EU students.
This would have a high-cost implication for Britain’s cash strapped educational establishments and therefore - inevitably - the British taxpayer.
The level of tuition fees for international students for an undergraduate degree varies between £11,400 and £38,000 per year, compared to £9,535 for UK students (a 3.1 per cent rise enacted by Labour).
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The EU's top brass are said to be preparing to demand Starmer submits to a youth mobility schemePAIt comes as Sir Keir Starmer heads to Brussels tonight for a lavish dinner with all 27 EU leaders at the Palais d’Egmont, the 16th-century palace where Ted Heath signed the treaty taking Britain into the European Economic Community in 1972.
The PM is expected to be grilled on several issues including defence, the possibility of British peace-keeping troops in Ukraine, fishing rights for EU vessels around the UK and the youth mobility scheme.
Starmer will be walking a delicate diplomatic path as any cosying up to the EU will be being watched very closely by President Trump.
The US leader took aim at the EU today, calling the bloc an ‘atrocity’ and ‘way out of line’ massively increasing fears the US will impose tariffs.
Trump said he and Starmer were getting on well but that the UK had also been out of line.
A youth mobility scheme could be seen as Starmer pursuing an ‘EU first’ approach with Trump may not take kindly too.
On youth mobility, the EU Commission state their aim as: “To enable young people to move without being tied to a purpose (i.e., to allow for studying, training or working), or quota-bound.
“For instance, under the envisaged agreement, both EU and UK citizens aged between 18 to 30 years would be able to stay for up to 4 years in the destination country.”
Speaking in April 2024, Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, said: “The Commission has today proposed to the Council to open negotiations with the United Kingdom on an agreement to facilitate youth mobility.
Such an agreement would make it easier for young EU and UK citizens to study, work and live in the UK and the EU respectively.
“The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union has hit young people in the EU and the UK who would like to study, work and live abroad particularly hard.
“Today, we take the first step towards an ambitious but realistic agreement between the EU and the UK that would fix this issue.”
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