Post-Brexit youth visa scheme with EU given green light in major step towards closer ties with the bloc

The European Union has given the green light to post-Brexit youth visas with the UK, after member states approved talks on how they would work in practice.

Campaigners welcomed what they hailed as a “massive step forward for young people in the UK.”

The European Council, which comprises the leaders of EU member countries, has backed opening up detailed discussions with the UK to determine how many visas would be issued and what conditions they would have.

Britons lost the right to live and work in the EU – so-called “freedom of movement” – and vice versa, after the UK left the bloc. But there have long been calls for a scheme for 18-30 years olds that would allow Brits to work on the continent, and young people from EU countries to come here, for a short period of a few years.

Britain already has similar agreements on youth mobility with 13 separate countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Iceland, Uruguay, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Most of these are open to 18 to 30-year-olds or 18 to 35-year-olds, depending on where they are from, and allow them to live and work in the UK for up to two years.

But idea of a youth visa deal with the EU has proven controversial, with Labour ministers forced to defend it and deny it’s a return to pre-Brexit style freedom of movement.

Earlier this year Downing Street made clear that anyone coming to the UK as part of a youth mobility scheme with the EU will not be able to access benefits, nor bring family members with them.

It is understood that they would also have to pay an immigration health surcharge to use the NHS.

The council has now adopted plans to open official negotiations with the UK on such a scheme.

Alfred Quantrill, from the Young European Movement UK, said: “The EU deciding to formally start talks on a Youth Experience Scheme is a massive step forward for young people in the UK.

“Young Brits deserve the same chances enjoyed by most of their peers across the continent.

“Whether you call it a Youth Experience Scheme or Mobility Scheme, it amounts to the same – more opportunities for a whole generation of young Brits who have seen their chances of working and studying abroad shrinking for a decade.

“That means rejoining schemes like Erasmus+, but also opening up broader access to apprenticeships, internships, and leisure. While our parents could freely work, study and travel across borders, this generation is trapped by paperwork and high costs. The Youth Experience Scheme is Starmer’s chance to fix this failure.”

The moves comes just days after a poll showed that nearly nine years on from the narrow Brexit referendum result, which led to the UK leaving the union, most Britons want to see the UK return to the EU.

The YouGov poll survey highlighted the extent to which the UK public is “Bregretful” about the outcome of the vote, which ended David Cameron’s term as prime minister.