Europe: Youth Mobility

Baroness Twycross Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for securing this debate on the case for a new youth mobility scheme with European countries. I echo the warm welcome across your Lordships’ House to my noble friend Lord Moraes and congratulate him on his maiden speech. It is clear that he has a wealth of knowledge and experience to contribute to your Lordships’ House on this and other significant issues. He already has many friends here from his previous career, not least at the European Parliament. I note that, with my noble friend Lord Watson and the noble Earl, Lord Dundee, he also joins an impressive group of Dundonians.

We have heard a lot of interesting, impassioned speeches about the opportunities of the reset and youth mobility. I will address these points in turn but, as someone married to an EEA citizen, I first thank the right reverend Prelate for noting that Europe extends beyond the EU. As someone who sees the significance of the right to vote and to obtain a passport, I cannot quite agree with the noble Lord, Lord Jackson of Peterborough, that settled status is de facto citizenship. However, it is significant, not least because my husband got his settled status just two weeks ago and we celebrated that as a major life moment.

I thought it would be useful to update Peers on the progress that the Government have made on the reset of relations with the EU so far, not least as this debate falls the day before the fifth anniversary of the UK leaving the EU. As the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, noted, this was following a democratic vote where citizens were asked whether or not they wanted to leave the EU. I hope the noble Lord, Lord Balfe, will take some comfort from the fact that this Government are clear that we want to reset the relationship with our European friends and neighbours. We will not, however, be relitigating Brexit—a point referenced by the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, in her speech. However, I will say that the Government are committed to delivering an improved and ambitious relationship with our European partners within the EU and beyond. We do not agree with the noble Lord, Lord Frost, that there was not a need to do this. I am afraid that I do not agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, that keeping the red lines we committed to—our election promises—is somehow not brave: in other words, cowardly and wrong. The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham, implied that I do not agree with the Government on this and am merely sort of parroting words—I paraphrase, but I should make it very clear that I do agree with the Government’s position and am proud to restate it. I am clear that we should not use our majority in the other place to break our manifesto commitments.

The noble Lord, Lord Frost, asked me to set out the objectives of the reset, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham, also spoke about the reset. The noble Baroness is right that I am not going to give a running commentary. The President of the European Commission and the Prime Minister have agreed to strengthen the relationship between the EU and UK, putting it on a more solid, stable footing. The Prime Minister met with European Commission President von der Leyen in the autumn to agree to strengthen our relationship, and they met again on 7 November at the EPC in Budapest. The Foreign Secretary attended the Foreign Affairs Council in October and the Chancellor addressed the Eurogroup meeting in December. The Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has been taking discussions forward with his counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič.

The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, asked whether a youth mobility scheme would be discussed with EU leaders next week. As noted by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, the Prime Minister will travel to Brussels on 3 February to attend an informal EU Council meeting at the invitation of Council President António Costa. In response to the noble Baroness’s question, this discussion is expected to focus on the geostrategic challenges facing Europe.

We have agreed to hold regular UK-EU summits at leader level to review progress, starting in the first half of this year. In particular, we want to work closely to address wider global challenges including economic headwinds, geopolitical competition, irregular migration, climate change and energy prices, which pose fundamental challenges to our shared values and provide the strategic driver for stronger co-operation. We will work across the three pillars of the UK-EU reset: safety, security and the economy. We recognise that delivering new agreements will take time, but we are ambitious, have clear priorities and want to move forward at pace.

The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, asked about consultations on the EU reset with young people. As we move forward, we recognise the importance of maintaining an effective dialogue with industry leaders, trade unions and civil society through a variety of means. This includes the formal channels such as the UK TCA domestic advisory group and the Civil Society Forum.

My noble friend Lord Watson of Invergowrie asked about the pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention. Before I turn to the question of mobility, which I will come on to shortly, I want to make it clear to my noble friend that the convention is not a customs union or an EU scheme. We are always looking at ways to reduce barriers to trade in the EU, within our red lines, as this is essential to driving growth at home. This is an option and it is right and responsible that we look at it, but we are not seeking necessarily to participate in it at the present time.

The noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, asked whether everything was up and running in relation to electronic travel authorisation, which will be rolled out to European nationals later this year. I can assure her that the rollout started in October 2023 and is proceeding well. If there are other points relating to borders that she wishes to raise with me, I am happy to pick that up after this debate.

Turning now to the question of youth mobility, I want to be clear in response to the right reverend Prelate’s question that this is not the same as freedom of movement. That came up at several points throughout the debate. This Government recognise the value of people-to-people connections and of schemes which give young people the opportunity to experience different cultures of work. The noble Baronesses, Lady Smith of Newnham and Lady Featherstone, made this point very powerfully.

These opportunities exist in various forms internationally. Working holiday programmes offered by countries such as France and Chile, scholarship schemes such as Chevening and Marshall in the UK, the Australia Awards, Fulbright in the US and the Japanese Government’s scholarship scheme are other examples of mobility programmes. There is also the Turing scheme, which I will speak about in more detail in a moment, and the Taith scheme in Wales.

As the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, made clear, some training or education institutions have their own schemes. My own year studying abroad was part of my degree course; it was not facilitated by Erasmus. I wholeheartedly agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes, on the importance of modern languages—a point also made by the noble Earl, Lord Dundee. We lose something if we do not have an ability as a country to look beyond our borders and learn foreign languages. That is a strongly held personal view that I have expressed previously in this House.

To be clear to the noble Lord, Lord Frost, the EU has not put forward a proposal to us on youth mobility at the moment. There was some potential misunderstanding on the part of a number of noble Lords that this is an active proposal that is on the table. It has not been put forward at the moment.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans, the noble Lords, Lord Moraes and Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate, and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, talked about a youth mobility scheme, which differs from free movement in several ways. A youth mobility scheme would require an application. It is time-bound. There are age restrictions. It operates on quotas generally and is subject to charges such as a visa application fee and the immigration health surcharge. The free movement provisions were unconditional for those who were entitled to access them.

A number of noble Lords mentioned Turing. As noble Lords are aware, the Turing scheme is the UK Government’s programme for students to study and work anywhere in the world. Since 2021, the scheme has helped tens of thousands of UK students to develop new skills, gain international experience and boost their employability, both in the EU and beyond. Turing provides more funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, so they can participate in international placements, breaking down barriers to opportunity.

For the 2024-25 academic year, education providers and other eligible organisations from across the UK have been allocated over £105 million to send more than 45,000 students on study and work placements across the globe. I am pleased to say that around 53% of those opportunities will be for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds. Those are not small numbers, in my view.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans, the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, and others referred to the issues facing touring artists, soft power and Creative Europe. Noble Lords have highlighted the benefits of mobility arrangements for musicians, choirs and artists, as well as for the wider creative sector. We are working with the creative and cultural sectors to ensure that our world-leading sectors can continue to promote growth and enrich lives at home and abroad.

As set out in our manifesto, the Government are committed to supporting our touring artists in performing and promoting themselves around the world. That is why we are engaging with the European Commission and EU member states to explore how best to improve arrangements for touring without seeing a return to free movement. We have not proposed any plans for Creative Europe. We want to look forward, not backwards, working together on shared priorities and global challenges.

The noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, and others mentioned the UK Soft Power Council. The Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport are co-chairing the council, which is made up from experts from the foreign policy and soft power sectors, including culture, the creative industries, media and sport. The first meeting of the council was on 15 January. The council will advise the Government on a strategy, a new campaign, and a strategic calendar of domestic and international events. We agree with noble Lords who made it clear that our soft power in these areas is one of our strengths in international relations.

The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, spoke about the issues facing the British Council. We remain committed to ensuring the financial stability of the British Council, and our continued funding underlines our support for its important work in promoting the English language, UK arts and culture, and education. I hope he finds that reassuring.

Separate from Turing, our bilateral youth mobility schemes provide a range of valuable cultural exchange opportunities, offering young people from the UK and partner countries the chance to experience life in another country and to make lifelong ties and friendships overseas. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans, the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Wheatcroft and Lady Smith of Newnham, spoke about school trips. I did not have such a positive experience of my own French exchange at school, but that did not put me off travelling later in life, which was good. The Government are committed to providing enriching opportunities for our students and young people to experience other countries and cultures. The previous Government agreed measures with France in 2023 that make travel for school groups between the UK and France easier.

Such schemes and programmes exist the world over because they have well-documented cultural and social benefits. As the noble Lord, Lord Frost, highlighted, successive Governments in the UK have supported youth mobility schemes, from the very first youth mobility scheme in 2008 with Canada to the agreements with India and Uruguay in 2023 and 2024 respectively. As the noble Earls, Lord Effingham and Lord Dundee, noted, the United Kingdom already offers and operates a number of bilateral youth mobility schemes with European countries such as Iceland and Andorra, as well as with a number of our global partners such as India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As of last autumn, these schemes have attracted 24,000 participants to the UK who have come here to work, study or simply to visit and spend some time in the UK. That is a testament to the value of these opportunities.

With regard to a prospective scheme with the EU, the Government have been clear that we do not have any plans for a youth mobility scheme, but we will look at the EU’s proposals on a range of issues. The Government have been elected on a commitment not to return to free movement. In response to the question from the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, we will not be returning to free movement. This objective must be respected, but it does not diminish the value of the schemes that we have discussed in your Lordships’ House today. We are committed to our promises and to delivering for the British people.