Britain and the European Union are preparing a three-year residency agreement for young people aged 18 to 34, which would allow eligible citizens to live, work and study across both territories.
Leaders plan to advance the agreement during a November 20 summit in Brussels, and the initiative forms part of British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s efforts to rebuild relations with the EU following the 2016 Brexit referendum.
The proposed youth experience scheme will grant eligible British and EU citizens residence rights for up to three years. Participants will also have opportunities to volunteer, travel and gain professional experience abroad.
According to a draft joint statement reviewed by Reuters, the agreement does not specify a limit on participants. However, both sides must finalise the terms before introducing the scheme.
The arrangement will create temporary residency opportunities without restoring the broader freedom of movement that existed before Brexit. Meanwhile, EU ambassadors will review the proposed agreements and supporting legal documents ahead of the Brussels summit.
The November meeting will also focus on reducing agricultural trade barriers and connecting British and European emissions trading systems. Under the agricultural agreement, Britain will align certain food safety and animal health standards with EU regulations, which aims to simplify cross-border trade and reduce administrative requirements for exporters.
Linking emissions trading systems will also strengthen cooperation on carbon pricing and industrial emissions. Britain will also press for its car industry to be included in the EU’s new “Made in Europe” rules.
Tuition fee talks stall, Burnham pushes for closer EU ties
Britain will also rejoin the EU’s Erasmus+ education programme in 2027, following an agreement reached earlier this year. The programme will expand opportunities for students, apprentices, and education professionals to study and gain experience internationally.
Negotiations over university tuition fees remain unresolved, however. British and EU officials aim to complete discussions within six months, with the proposed arrangement seeking more equal tuition treatment for students attending universities across both territories.
Currently, EU students attending British universities generally pay international tuition fees, often significantly higher than domestic rates.
An EU diplomat told The Guardian that the proposed changes could reduce these costs without guaranteeing identical domestic fees. “Having a youth experience scheme without an agreement on tuition fees has very little added value,” they said.
The upcoming summit represents another step in Britain’s efforts to strengthen economic and diplomatic relations with European partners. Britain formally left the EU in 2020 following the 2016 referendum, ending decades of membership and changing immigration, trade, and education arrangements.
Since taking office in July, Prime Minister Burnham has advocated closer cooperation with European countries. In September, he argued that Brexit had caused more economic harm than good.
Read more: Burnham reopens Brexit debate, pushes for closer EU ties
UK carmakers push for a place in “Made in Europe”
The summit will also test a dispute that sat outside the reset plan agreed under former PM Keir Starmer in May 2025, but has since moved to the top of Downing Street’s agenda. In March the European Commission published its Industrial Accelerator Act, which would favour EU-made products in public procurement and public support schemes across strategic sectors like cars, steel, aluminium, and clean technology.
For electric vehicles, the draft sets a 70% threshold for parts sourced from within the EU.
Because Britain left the single market, UK-built cars would not automatically count as European under the draft. They could lose access to EU incentives for greener corporate fleets, the CO2 “super credits” that help manufacturers meet emission targets, and public contracts in member states.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Mike Hawes warned in September the exclusion was an “own goal”, weakening competitiveness, reducing production volumes, and limiting consumer choice.
SMMT puts UK-EU automotive trade at €80 billion a year. Britain is the EU’s largest export market for passenger cars, worth €39.7 billion to European manufacturers. On the other side, the EU sells €9.1 billion of car components to the UK each year, more than to any other market, and EU-built models make up 61.6% of the battery electric cars sold in Britain. In March alone, the EU took 62.6% of UK car exports, according to SMMT production data.
Burnham has raised the issue repeatedly since taking office, telling French President Emmanuel Macron at Downing Street on September 3 that the agenda could pose significant challenges for British industry. Later that month, on his way to the UN General Assembly in New York, he argued that Britain should be treated as a “trusted partner” under the scheme.
“We are not the problem,” Burnham said. In October, he then made the same case to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
On October 16, France and Germany agreed a joint automotive package that would extend “Made in Europe” status for vehicles to European partners that were part of the single market on January 1, 2020. That cut-off date includes Britain, which stayed in the single market during the Brexit transition period, as well as Norway.
Eligibility would not be automatic, though. It could require Britain to adopt EU restrictions on Chinese-built hybrid and electric vehicles, a significant demand given that Britain never matched the duties Brussels imposed on Chinese EVs in 2024.
Renault CEO François Provost raised a further condition, arguing that Britain should drop its own EV sales mandate and align with EU rules.
Brussels summit offers first test of Britain’s bid
France and Germany still need support from other member states and the European Parliament, and a final text is unlikely before early next year. That makes the November 20 summit the earliest opportunity for the political commitment SMMT has been seeking since spring.
European manufacturers are pushing in the same direction. Their lobby group, ACEA, called in July for British vehicles and parts to count as “Made in Europe”.
Carmakers on both sides also face a nearer deadline. From January 1, 2027, stricter rules of origin under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement take effect; to avoid 10% tariffs, 55% of an electric vehicle’s value and 65%-70% of its battery will have to originate in the UK or EU.
The two sides delayed those thresholds once, in 2023, but the extension included a clause that rules out a second delay. The stricter thresholds take effect six weeks after leaders meet in Brussels.
Featured image: Prime Minister Andy Burnham meets with António Costa, President of the European Council while travelling by train to Ukraine to mark Independence Day.
Source: Number 10 via Flickr
Author: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street
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