The Commission of the European Union has proposed to begin negotiations with the United Kingdom to facilitate youth mobility.
The aim is to create an agreement which will make it easier for both young citizens of the EU and UK to study, work, and live in each other’s territories without having to undergo strict rules, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Since Brexit, when the UK left the UK, the movement of people between the two regions has significantly dropped.
This has specifically impacted the opportunities for young EU citizens and Brits to experience life on the other side of the Channel and to take advantage of cultural, youth, research, educational, and training exchanges.
Therefore, by putting forward this proposal to facilitate youth mobility between the EU and UK, the authorities aim to tackle the current barriers.
The proposal aims to grant young people the right to travel between the EU and the UK more easily for longer periods.
The proposal seeks to address in an innovative way the main barriers to mobility for young people experienced today and create a right for young people to travel from the EU to the UK and vice-versa more easily and for a longer period of time.
The proposal further sets out conditions that must be met by young people in order to be able to move between the EU and the UK for study, training and work purposes.
The conditions that must be followed include age, maximum stay duration, conditions of eligibility, and rules for verifying compliance.
Under the proposed agreement, citizens of the EU and UK between the ages of 18 and 30 could stay for up to four years in the destination country.
We Aim to Rebuild Human Bridges Between Young Europeans
Commenting on the proposal, the Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, Maroš Šefčovič, said that the main aim of the proposal is to rebuild human bridges between European on both sides of the Channel.
He further stressed that the Commission is committed to creating opportunities for young EU and UK citizens.
The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union has hit young people in the EU and the UK who would like to study, work and live abroad particularly hard. Today, we take the first step towards an ambitious but realistic agreement between the EU and the UK that would fix this issue.
The recommendation of the Commission on the matter will now be discussed in the EU Council. If the Council approves the proposal, the Commission will then be able to launch negotiations with the UK on youth mobility.
