Significant gaps remain in negotiations on the reset in relations between the UK and the EU despite Keir Starmer’s latest pledge to put Britain “at the heart of Europe” after last week’s election drubbing.
The UK wants to limit the number of young people from the EU who come into the country as part of a post-Brexit youth mobility scheme to below 50,000, it has emerged.
The EU has already rejected a cap and wants unlimited visas with an annual review on numbers instead, to allow an “emergency brake” on the scheme if politically desirable.
It is understood that the UK is also unwilling to budge on the issue of “home” fees for EU citizens, although it can argue that this was never a topic in the reset roadmap.
Catherine Barnard, a professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said in relation to negotiation on the youth mobility scheme: “I fear that things are still very tricky. I have heard nothing to the contrary to suggest it was going any better than a month ago.”
The youth mobility scheme is the main priority in European capitals, allowing under-30s to travel to each other’s jurisdictions to work, study, au pair or simply experience a foreign country.
When reset talks opened a year ago, capping the scheme at 70,000 was mooted, but sources say the ballpark is now between 40,000 and 50,000, reflecting Labour’s wider anxiety about immigration numbers.
The government has refused to comment on the limit other than to say it would be in the “tens of thousands”.
But behind the scenes there is some frustration in the EU at the UK’s resistance to budge on what both sides agreed was a critical way of promoting better understanding of each other’s countries.
Ben Brindle, a researcher at the Migration Observatory, said: “A 50,000 cap would be similar to the Australian YMS. However, whereas the Australian scheme is hugely undersubscribed (45,000 places in 2025, but only 8,200 visa grants), EU applications for youth mobility visas would be far more likely to hit the cap, because the young EU population is considerably larger than Australia’s.”
Brindle added that “what really matters is the length of the EU YMS visa”. The shorter it was, the less time EU citizens would have to find jobs eligible for work visas, or meet a British partner and switch to a family visa, he said.
EU sources said the other elements of the reset, including the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to reduce red tape for food and drink exports, were “all about” accommodating UK interests.
“People are asking: what do we – the EU – get out of this?” said one diplomat. “There will be no summit if there is no deal.”
With Donald Trump straining the transatlantic relationship, the political risk of closer ties with the EU with a temporary visa scheme is seen as the lowest it can be.
The reset deal was originally expected by the end of this month but the timetable has slipped, with the next summit between the UK and the EU not expected to the end of June or early July.
At the weekend Starmer indicated he would be pushing for further and faster collaboration with the EU, suggesting he wanted to close the gaps in talks.
“We have to be closer to Europe,” he told the Observer. “I want to be full-throated about this, not holding back, no half measures in what I’m saying.”
One of the thorniest issues is home tuition fees, which would allow EU citizens to study in the UK for the same fees as home students – and vice versa – instead of paying international rates that can, for example, range from £32,000 to £70,000 at the University of Cambridge.
The UK argues that tuition fees were not part of the reset common understanding so it does not need to engage on the issue.
In a blog post last month examining the problems, Barnard said: “While the UK and the EU share a vision on the breadth (and benefits of) the youth experience scheme, they have different substantive priorities.”
She said talks on SPS, energy and emissions trading would help to smooth issues arising out of the border created by Brexit between Great Britain and Northern Ireland but they were not really about a deeper relationship with the EU, something that would be achievable only by softening the UK’s red lines on the single market and customs union.
Barnard also noted that negotiations led by Brussels on youth mobility had proven tricky, as work visas remain the competence of national governments. There was nothing to stop France, for instance, setting its own cap at zero, she said.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We will not give a running commentary on ongoing talks. We are working together with the EU to create a balanced youth experience scheme which will create new opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel.
“Any final scheme must be time-limited, capped and will be based on our existing youth mobility schemes.”