Students
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission proposed Thursday to open talks with the United Kingdom on making it easier for young people in the EU and UK to study, work and live in the UK and the EU respectively.
The UK’s withdrawal from the under Brexit resulted in decreased mobility between the EU and the UK. Young people have been deprived of opportunities to experience life on the other side of the Channel and to benefit from youth, cultural, educational, research and training exchanges.
“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,” said EC vice-president Maros Sefcovic: “Today, we take the first step towards an ambitious but realistic agreement between the EU and the UK that would fix this issue. Our aim is to rebuild human bridges between young Europeans on both sides of the Channel.”
The new proposal looks to address in an innovative way the main barriers to mobility for young people experienced today and create a right for young people to travel from the EU to the UK and vice-versa more easily and for a longer period of time.
The proposal sets out conditions that would have to be met (age, maximum duration of stay, conditions of eligibility, rules for verifying their compliance) 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.
The EU executive’s recommendation will now be discussed by states in the EU Council. If the Council agrees, the Commission would be empowered to launch negotiations with the UK on youth mobility.
Commission proposal to open negotiations on EU-UK youth mobility - guide
