Commission proposes to open negotiations to facilitate youth mobility between the EU and the UK

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

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 withdrawal of the UK from the EU has resulted in decreased mobility between the EU and the UK. This situation has particularly affected the opportunities for young people to experience life on the other side of the Channel and to benefit from youth, cultural, educational, research and training exchanges.   

The proposal seeks 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 the 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.   

Next steps  

The Commission’s recommendation will now be discussed in the Council. If the Council agrees, the Commission would be empowered to launch negotiations with the UK on youth mobility.  

Background 

Since the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, mobility between the EU and UK is governed by the respective domestic (immigration) rules of the EU and its Member States and the UK. This has resulted in decreased numbers of persons exercising mobility between the EU and the UK. The Commission’s proposal on an EU-UK agreement on youth mobility could be usefully supported by a parallel discussion on the possible association of the UK to Erasmus+. 

For more information

Questions and answers

Youth mobility 

Commission’s recommendation for a Council Decision 

Relations with the United Kingdom 

Quote(s)

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. Our aim is to rebuild human bridges between young Europeans on both sides of the Channel.

Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight