The EU is demanding that there should be no limit on the number of people who can use a youth mobility scheme with the UK in a move that sets up a fresh confrontation between London and Brussels.
A draft EU text of a proposed agreement seen by the Financial Times states that both sides “shall not impose quota” when implementing the agreement, known as the Youth Experience Scheme (YES), despite UK ministers repeatedly promising that such a scheme would be capped.
The EU is also continuing to demand that students from the bloc who attend UK universities pay the same lower level of tuition fees as Britons.
The draft text makes it clear that stark differences remain between the two sides despite hopes that significant gaps had been smoothed over at a summit in Windsor in May.
It comes just a week after talks for the UK to join a €140bn EU defence fund broke down following London’s refusal to pay billions of euros in fees.
Brussels and London are also in negotiations over separate deals to remove border checks on food and plant products, and to re-link the two sides’ carbon-pricing schemes.
Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, this week called for a “grown-up” debate in Britain about developing a closer relationship with the EU, but warned: “We have to accept that this will require trade-offs.”
But the demands from Brussels on the new youth scheme confirm that some of those trade-offs — such as looser migration rules and preferential EU access to cash-strapped British universities — are potentially politically painful.
The UK argues that Brussels is now trying to move the goalposts by reopening a debate settled at the summit in May, at which it was agreed to limit numbers.
The “Common Understanding” reached then stated only that a scheme should “provide a dedicated visa path” and ensure that “the overall number of participants is acceptable to both sides”.
The document made no reference to EU students being able to pay so-called “home” fees for UK universities — at present £9,535 — as they did before Brexit, rather than international fees, which can be up to £30,000.
EU diplomats warned that the request for “equal treatment” of EU and UK students was a fundamental element of the scheme, which would enable those aged 18 to 32 to live, study and work in each other’s countries for up to a maximum of three years.
In another problematic move for London, the EU text says that while there should be no limit on the numbers who can use the scheme, including for study, there could be employment restrictions. Host states must be able “to determine the volumes of admission of applicants coming to its territory to seek work”, it said.
The EU proposal makes clear that Britons using the scheme would not get free movement in the EU in terms of employment. Instead, their right to work would be confined to one member state, denying them the chance to, for example, work in the French Alps in the winter and an Italian café in the summer.
UK negotiators have ruled out EU students paying the same tuition fees as Britons and insist on an overall cap on numbers, according to people familiar with the situation.
The UK government said the scheme should be “balanced” and create “opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel”.
It added: “As agreed with the EU in May, any final scheme must be time-limited and capped.”
The draft, which is subject to negotiation by both sides, also proposes host states could restrict working time for visa recipients to as little as 15 hours a week to prevent it becoming what one EU diplomat called a “cheap labour scheme”.
Any agreement for EU students to pay the same as Britons is being resisted by the UK university sector, which replaced students from the bloc after Brexit with large numbers of higher-paying international students from Africa and Asia.
EU diplomats and officials said the draft reflected consensus among multiple EU member states that the scheme must restore European access to British university campuses after numbers plummeted following Brexit.
“We’re not interested in just sending our young people to make coffee for Brits in Hammersmith,” said one EU diplomat.
A second EU diplomat warned that the perception among member states that the UK was taking a “hyper-transactional” and “penny-pinching” approach might “demotivate” Brussels to deliver on other areas of British interest.
The EU and UK have started negotiations over a so-called “veterinary agreement”, under which London would accept EU food standards in return for fewer border checks on animals and produce, and relinking their emissions trading schemes, with a target to implement deals by the middle of 2027, according to UK ministers.
Separately, the two sides have also agreed to negotiate the UK’s return to the Erasmus+ student exchange programme for internships and school exchanges of up to a year.
The European Commission did not respond to a request to comment.
Data visualisation by Amy Borrett, additional reporting by George Parker