Europe: Youth Mobility

Earl of Dundee Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Dundee (Con)]

My Lords, I join others in thanking the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for his introduction to the debate. I warmly congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Moraes, on his excellent maiden speech. Along with him and the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, it is a very great pleasure for me to speak in this debate within a solid group of three Dundonians.

I will briefly touch on a few points: youth mobility schemes, which are different from those of freedom of movement; how these still benefit international culture as much as national economies; and the current availability of help to us from the 46-state human rights and think tank affiliation of the Council of Europe, of which the United Kingdom remains a prominent member. I am a recent chairman of its Education and Culture Committee.

Since Brexit, youth movement numbers from Europe to the United Kingdom have dramatically declined, as many have drawn our attention to. Clearly, this negative trend should be reversed. Does the Minister agree that, if accepted, recent European Commission proposals for a UK-EU youth mobility scheme would achieve two purposes—first, improving numbers, and, secondly, as the noble Lord, Lord Moraes, and others have pointed out, so doing without causing freedom of movement?

Through the proposed EU scheme, individuals can come only for a limited period and thus are not permitted to settle in the United Kingdom, as conversely UK participants are equally restricted from so doing in European Union member states. Do the Government aim to secure a deal with the European Commission very soon? What are their current reservations? Which further concessions, if any, will they then seek to gain from the Commission?

Then there are the existing youth mobility schemes which the United Kingdom already has, and which we have heard about in this debate, with 12 different countries, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Iceland, Uruguay, Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, regarding the 27 European Union member states, bilateral youth mobility arrangements with any or all of them would be much less desirable than a working arrangement with all of them together through the European Union. That follows anyway, once there is a youth mobility deal with the European Commission itself. Only an EU-level approach will ensure that all member states are treated equally in respect of the mobility of young people to the United Kingdom. Does the Minister concur that this comparative assessment adds a further reason for the Government to secure a timely youth mobility deal with the European Union as soon as possible?

As the right reverend Prelate has implied, not only ought we to have a new youth mobility system with the European Union. We should also rejoin Erasmus. The Turin and Horizon schemes are to be welcomed, and I very much endorse what my noble friend Lord Jackson said in praising Horizon. Nevertheless, Erasmus goes much wider, and the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, made this point, too. The cost of Erasmus has been complained about due to more students coming to the United Kingdom than United Kingdom students are going to Europe. Yet that is hardly surprising. For, along with the right reverend Prelate, all your Lordships will lament the continuing inadequacy of language skills in the United Kingdom. The cost of Erasmus is surely well worth paying for, if, to our advantage, it can help redress this and certain other learning deficiencies that the United Kingdom has when compared with different countries in Europe.

Regarding economic growth and complementing labour shortages, and in so far as these consequences can be assisted at all by increased youth mobility to the United Kingdom, the Government are right to describe them as secondary goals. The priority must be personal development arising from education and culture exchanges. However, as a useful by-product, youth mobility will clearly improve the United Kingdom economy, as it will serve to reduce our labour shortages. That is why the British Chambers of Commerce urges this to be borne in mind in order to create sensible long-term designs for youth mobility, where these are able to promote culture along with economic growth both here and elsewhere.

Does the Minister assent that it is exactly this duality of good cultural and economic outcomes together which sensible long-term youth mobility designs ought to contain? Does she believe that this should, therefore, become part of our forthcoming talks with the European Commission, equally so to accompany our application to rejoin Erasmus, hence as well shaping our plan of action to rejoin Erasmus this year, as soon as we can, after concluding a youth mobility deal with the European Union?

Fortunately, and in any case, we are already party to a number of Council of Europe initiatives related to youth mobility. These strengthen our hand for European Commission dealings, as they also do for applying to rejoin Erasmus. Over the last few decades, the United Kingdom has variously signed and ratified the European Agreement on Continued Payment of Scholarships to Students Studying Abroad; the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region; and the European Agreement on Travel by young Persons on Collective Passports between the Member Countries of the Council of Europe.

One action we have not so far signed is the European Agreement on Regulations governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe. That would assist UK citizens, by indicating the travel and identity papers which they need for crossing between signatory states. We should sign this without too much further delay. Can the Minister please give an assurance that we will do so?

Not least, there is also the Council of Europe’s European Youth Foundation from which we benefit. This funds European youth activities to encourage peace, understanding and co-operation within Europe and globally, in a spirit of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Given that, save for only one of them, the United Kingdom is already party to these Council of Europe measures and their broad aims, I am quite sure that the Minister would consider that we must make full use of their powerful range and advocacy. We should do so when we talk to the European Commission and others about co-operating within a variety of constructive options.

For the more we adopt that approach, the more likely it becomes that we will achieve our objectives, including the immediate ones this year of rejoining Erasmus and improving youth mobility to the United Kingdom.