THERE’S A NEW UK DEAL WITH THE EU

ON ‘YOUTH EXPERIENCE’.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

 
The news on the joint EU-UK summit on London has been controversial to many people.

Well, the details are rather light at the moment, but we can all be encouraged that British ski instructors could well get access to European mountains once again.

YOUTH MOBILITY vs YOUTH EXPERIENCE

Back in August 2024 we wrote about the desire in the EU to create a Youth Mobility Scheme for young people from the EU to work in the UK for a limited period and for the UK’s young people to live and work in the EU.

At the time The UK Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, said:

“…we do not have plans for [the] Youth Mobility Scheme.”

Whilst this seemed to be a concrete rejection, we noted at the time it did not rule out plans for “something similar”.

Well, this seems to be true – this is not a “Youth Mobility” scheme, it’s re-badged as a “Youth Experience” scheme.

So the Prime Minister can deny this is a u-turn, and claim it’s a wholly different scheme.

But in reality it seems to be exactly what we hoped for and what everyone in the ski industry wanted: Access for young British people to the labour markets of Europe.

WHAT ARE THE DETAILS?

We will be updating you with more detail when we get them – but this announcement was deliberately light on information.

That probably because they are still negotiating precisely what will happen, but also because they know this is a thorny issue for the UK, and how it is revealed will be a very delicate procedure.

But we can be encouraged that Kier Starmer said:

“We’ve agreed today to cooperate on a Youth Experience Scheme, to allow our young people to travel and work freely in Europe. And I’m clear this will come with all the appropriate time-limits, caps and Visa requirements…”

So it should be a similar structure to the youth mobility deals the UK has with about 13 different countries.

It will be for young people (aged, perhaps, from 18 to 30), it will be time-limited and the Prime Minister implies there will be a quota.

A good example would be the mobility afforded to Australians coming to the UK and for British young people going to Australia.

It seems likely it will be a visa of a year or two years with the right to work.

He went on to repeat later:

“[The Youth Experience Scheme] will allow young people in the UK to work and travel. [It will be] time-limited, with numbers to be agreed and it’s a Visa Scheme”

This confirms that they aren’t keen to reveal everything right now as it’s still being negotiated.

The UK will be, frankly, terrified of it being seen as a return to freedom of movement. So the quota and the time-limits are very sensitive.

One thing we have not seen is any mention of minimum qualifications or employment requirements.

That means we currently assume that they are not going to make this an offer that only benefits certain qualifications or industries.

A truly open deal for young people to experience other cultures.

But we will have to wait for the full details.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SWITZERLAND?

Against the backdrop of the EU-UK summit, the Swiss government are also negotiating with the UK on a trade deal and have also recently concluded negotiations with the EU a trade deal.

We wrote about the Swiss-UK trade negotiations and the potential impact in October 2024.

Following the Swiss-EU negotiations, the Swiss are now voting internally on a way to limit freedom of movement – giving them an emergency brake if they think EU immigration to Switzerland is too high.

This reflects the growing mood in Swiss politics that immigration needs to be reduced – if not stopped. A similar mind-set which lead to Brexit.

But if the EU offer mobility of young people from the UK into the EU, it makes it easier for the Swiss to follow that blueprint – allowing young British citizens to access the Swiss labour market and vice versa.

How this would work might be revealed very soon – as we wrote in January 2025, the current trade negotiations are due to be concluded by July this year.

Interestingly the same concerns that make Kier Starmer so keen to highlight time-limits and quotas also resonate with the current politics in Switzerland.

So – bizarrely – this mutual fear of being seen to allow too much immigration could mean it’s easier for them to agree a clearly limited and controlled system.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

In short? We wait.

We wait for the conclusion of the negotiations of “time-limits and numbers” with the EU.

Meanwhile we wait for July to see if these UK-EU rules are reflected in the new Swiss-UK deal.

Whatever happens it is really positive conversation – one which hasn’t seemed possible for years – and we believe it is the door opening to young British ski instructors who want to work in Europe again.

Needless to say we will bring you an update here as soon as we have more information.