EU's new proposals on youth mobility will put Starmer 'reset' to test

Fresh proposals to allow young people to move between Britain and the EU will be presented to the British government within weeks, in what is seen as a significant early test of Labour's "reset" in relations with Brussels.

- Kiran Stacey Lisa O'Carroll

Informed sources say the first draft of a new version of Ursula von der Leyen's April proposal has been discussed by member states and will be put to a working group in Brussels next week.

Among options are the removal of the previously proposed Erasmus scheme of student exchange programmes under which students would have paid home fees while studying abroad. British universities said this was a non-starter since they could not afford the lost income.

Rishi Sunak's government rejected the four-year youth mobility plan in April, but members of the European Council have since been working on fresh proposals. If the draft is finalised next week, member states will instruct the European Commission to make a fresh offer to Britain.

Officials in Brussels hope the new Labour administration will overturn the Sunak policy. They warn privately that another rejection could jeopardise the Starmer government's desire to sign new agreements on defence and agriculture.