EU Makes New Demand Of Britain For Brexit Reset

Member states insist UK rejoin Erasmus student exchange scheme so young citizens will pay the same tuition fees as British students

The European Union could demand that Britain rejoins its Erasmus student exchange programme as the price for Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit reset, The Telegraph can disclose.

A large group of member states made the demands amid growing frustrations at what they deemed to be intransigence over proposals for a youth mobility scheme, a diplomatic source said.

It represents a stiffening of the conditions being placed on the deals being negotiated to boost UK-EU trade and a new defence and security pact ahead of a summit in London on May 19.

The 27-member bloc had previously been seeking guarantees that its young citizens would pay the same tuition fees as British students under any youth mobility scheme.

“Erasmus has become key for a large number of member states,” an EU diplomat told The Telegraph.

“The UK is, indeed, pushing back on Erasmus [membership]… they only want youth mobility with caps for now.”

It came after Nick Thomas-Symonds, the European Union relations minister, publicly confirmed for the first time that the Government was seeking a scheme making it easier for young people to travel to Britain, and vice-versa to the EU.

This week, The Telegraph reported that tuition fees are seen as one of the significant sticking points in the negotiations over a scheme that would enable EU citizens aged between 18 and 30 to study and work in the UK.

The new demands could complicate negotiations ahead of the UK-EU summit later this month, where leaders hope to unveil new deals on fisheries, animal health, veterinary standards, defence and security.

Member states have already warned the European Commission, which negotiates on their behalf, that they have yet to sign off on a mandate for any tweaks to the Brexit deal.

Sir Keir already appears poised to offer concessions that would open up Britain’s fishing waters to EU vessels for three years, as well as dynamic alignment to Brussels’ SPS rulebook, as the price of a deal.

Rejoining Erasmus could see the British taxpayers forced to inject some £2 billion into the EU’s budget, according to estimates released by the previous Conservative government.

Lord Frost, who was Britain’s lead Brexit negotiator, said: “Erasmus will always be a net cost to the UK because more EU students want to come to Britain than Brits want to study in Europe.

“That is still the case because we have the best universities and the English language. We don’t need to pay the European Commission to get people to come here.”

His team refused to join Erasmus, unlike research scheme Horizon Europe, because it was deemed a cost burden on taxpayers.

The student exchange programme, which was established in 1987, provides annual grants for students to study around Europe as part of their degree.

While still part of the scheme, Britain was the third most popular study destination, only behind Spain and Germany.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government replaced it with the Turing Scheme, a worldwide exchange programme named after the Bletchley Park code breaker.

European governments insist youth mobility schemes are not tantamount to a back door for immigrants to gain entry to the UK.

“It is not migration, it has nothing to do with migration. It is not freedom of movement through the back door,” German ambassador to the UK Miguel Berger told ITV.

“It simply means that young people between the ages of 18 and 30 can come and work and live and study for [up to four] years, and then they are expected to go back to their countries of origin,” he said.

Negotiations over the EU reset continue as Sir Keir announced a freshly minted trade agreement with Donald Trump.

The deal with Washington will likely cover industries, like steel and aluminium, which were hardest hit by the US President’s 25 per cent import tariffs.

Meanwhile, Brussels has prepared a list of €95 billion of US exports that would face tariffs if it fails to reach its own deal with the Trump administration.

Cars, Boeing aircraft and certain foods, including beef and olive oil were included on the EU’s hit list.