Youth mobility scheme may be delayed to ensure success of UK-EU summit

Andy Burnham is to take part in a UK-EU ‘reset’ summit in Brussels on 20 November. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham is to take part in a UK-EU ‘reset’ summit in Brussels on 20 November. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA Youth mobility scheme may be delayed to ensure success of UK-EU summit Visa quotas, university fees and NHS surcharges remain sticking points ahead of post-Brexit negotiations next month A deadline for a youth mobility scheme between the EU and the UK could be deferred a bid to ensure Andy Burnham has a successful “reset” summit on 20 November, diplomats have said. EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday heard that the UK was still insisting on international tuition fees, quotas and an NHS surcharge for EU students. This has fuelled fears the summit could fail, just as the prime minister is promising to unveil a new vision for Britain’s long-term relationship with the EU. Sources say the UK also continues to push for a cap of about 50,000 a year on the numbers of EU citizens allowed in the country for work, travel or study under the mooted youth experience scheme (YES) visas. Some EU member states want the cap much higher, at up to 500,000. Others want no cap at all. The UK is also insisting that any YES visa holders pay the £1,035 NHS surcharge to cover potential doctor or hospital visits, although it is understood that a 25% discount has been suggested. Negotiations on two other issues – a food and drink trade deal and the emissions trading system – are almost complete but views on the youth mobility scheme remain divided. Sources say there is near-agreement on demands from the National Farmers’ Union that crops grown using fungicides yet to be approved in the EU could be sold in the bloc under a transition arrangement in the sanitary and phyto-sanitary agreement. “A lot of member states were in favour of keeping the trio of issues together and not breaking the agenda up, but there are others that think it is acceptable to decouple them and there is no agreement yet on which approach to take,” said one diplomat. But the reciprocal youth experience scheme designed to allow under-30s from both sides to work, travel or study in each other’s countries remains deadlocked. Talks on a fourth issue, in relation to the reintegration of the UK into the EU’s energy market, will also, as expected, continue after 20 November.