EU-UK youth mobility deal may be delayed six months to save 20 November summit

A deadline for a youth mobility scheme between the UK and the EU could be pushed back by six months in a bid to secure a successful "reset" summit on 20 November, diplomats have said.

EU ambassadors in Brussels heard on Wednesday that the UK is still insisting on international tuition fees, quotas and an NHS surcharge for EU students — demands that have fuelled fears the summit could fail. Andy Burnham is promising to unveil a new vision for Britain's long-term relationship with the EU at the meeting.

Cap and surcharge dispute

The UK also continues to push for a cap of about 50,000 a year on the number of EU citizens allowed in for work, travel or study under the proposed youth experience scheme (YES) visas, according to sources. Some EU member states want a cap as high as 500,000, while others want no cap at all.

UK negotiators are also insisting that YES visa holders pay the £1,035 NHS surcharge to cover possible doctor or hospital visits, although a 25% discount has been suggested.

Negotiations on two other issues — a food and drink trade deal and the emissions trading system — are almost complete. One diplomat said there was near-agreement on National Farmers' Union demands that crops grown using fungicides not yet approved in the EU could be sold in the bloc under a transition arrangement in the sanitary and phyto-sanitary agreement.

Views on the youth scheme remain divided. "A lot of member states were in favour of keeping the trio of issues together and not breaking the agenda up, but there are others that think it is acceptable to decouple them and there is no agreement yet on which approach to take," one diplomat said.

Tuition fees the thorniest issue

Tuition fees remain the hardest problem. UK universities are pressing the Labour government to maintain full international student fees for EU citizens, which can run to £69,190 a year at Oxford. One diplomat described an "emerging consensus" in Brussels around a European Commission proposal to take tuition fees out of the package altogether, with wording in a 20 November joint statement committing both sides to negotiating a solution by May 2027.

A landing zone somewhere between home fees of £9,790 and average international fees has been discussed, but universities outside the 24-strong Russell Group have told the government they cannot afford to drop fees for EU citizens. Several diplomats said the bloc is still split on removing tuition fees, and divided over how a cap would work, amid UK fears that voters — particularly in "red wall" constituencies — would see it as opening the gates to workers from economically less wealthy countries such as Bulgaria. A per-country cap has been floated, without detail on how it would work in practice.

France is still arguing for an "all or nothing" approach covering all three topics. Others say that, with pressure to move on to deeper economic, security and defence ties, they cannot risk failure on 20 November.

"YES is politically, emotionally and diplomatically very important. But if we can get an agreement at the summit by removing one element from the agenda it is a price worth paying," one diplomat said.

Talks on a fourth issue — UK reintegration into the EU's energy market — will continue after 20 November, with barriers such as state aid and oversight frameworks, including a role for the European court of justice, still unresolved.

Source: The Guardian World.