Young people in Britain and the European Union could soon be able to live, work and study in each other's countries under a new reciprocal deal known as the youth experience scheme. British ministers are in Brussels today, Tuesday 10 November 2026, for talks ahead of a UK-EU summit on 20 November, where an agreement on the scheme is expected to be announced. But what exactly is the youth experience scheme, who would it cover, and what is still to be decided? This explainer sets out what is known so far.

What is the youth experience scheme?

The youth experience scheme is a proposed reciprocal arrangement between the UK and the EU that would let young people spend a limited period living, working or studying on the other side. It would work in both directions: young Europeans could come to Britain, and young Britons could go to EU countries, under a dedicated visa. The UK and EU agreed at their summit in May 2025 to work towards what they called a "balanced youth experience scheme on terms to be mutually agreed", according to the House of Commons Library. The scheme does not exist yet. There is no application route, no start date and no final set of rules, because the terms are still being negotiated.

The idea is a direct consequence of Brexit. Free movement between the UK and the EU ended when the Brexit transition period finished on 31 December 2020, and the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which took effect from 1 January 2021, contained no provisions for youth mobility. Since then, young Britons have needed a visa to live or work in most EU countries, and young Europeans have needed one to live or work in the UK. The youth experience scheme is intended to reopen a limited, controlled route for that age group without restoring free movement.

How did the scheme develop?

The proposal began in Brussels rather than London. In April 2024 the European Commission proposed opening talks on an EU-UK youth mobility agreement covering people aged 18 to 30, with stays of up to four years. The then Conservative government and the then Labour opposition both rejected the idea, likening it to a return to free movement. The European Commission disputed that comparison, arguing that participation would be time-limited and subject to conditions of stay.

The picture changed after Labour took office in July 2024. The government initially avoided endorsing the proposal, but in early 2025 it indicated it might support a more limited version as part of its wider reset of relations with the EU. That led to the Common Understanding signed at the first UK-EU summit in London on 19 May 2025, which committed both sides to working towards a balanced youth experience scheme. The same summit also produced commitments on a common sanitary and phytosanitary area for food and animal products and on linking emissions trading schemes.

Progress was then interrupted by politics. In June 2026, shortly after a UK-EU summit had been announced for 22 July 2026, Keir Starmer announced that he was resigning as Prime Minister, and the summit was postponed until the autumn. Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July 2026 and said he wanted to make further progress quickly in the reset discussions. The rescheduled second UK-EU summit is now due in Brussels on 20 November 2026, and the youth experience scheme is one of the deals expected to be settled there.

Who could take part, and for how long?

The honest answer is that the final terms have not been agreed, and different reports describe different versions. The European Commission's original 2024 proposal covered people aged 18 to 30, with stays of up to four years. More recent reporting on a draft summit text, seen by the Reuters and AFP news agencies in early November 2026, describes a scheme for people aged 18 to 34 who could stay for up to three years. That draft text has not been confirmed by either side and could still change before the summit.

What both sides have agreed in principle is that the scheme would be time-limited and capped. The UK government has stressed that participants would have no access to benefits and no right to bring dependants, and that the number of places would be limited. The UK already runs youth mobility schemes with 13 countries outside the EU on similar terms, and the government has said the EU scheme would follow that model.

What would the scheme let young people do?

According to the draft summit text reported in early November, the scheme would allow young people "to reside for up to three years to engage in activities such as work, studies, au-pairing, volunteering, or simply travelling". In other words, it would not be limited to one purpose. A participant could take a job, enrol on a course, work as an au pair, volunteer, or travel, and could combine those activities during the stay.

The scheme is also linked to a separate but related deal on student exchanges. In December 2025 the UK and EU announced an agreement for Britain to rejoin the Erasmus+ programme, which funds educational, training and professional development placements across the EU and participating countries. The UK is due to rejoin for the 2027/28 academic year, with the government saying its contribution for that year would be around £570 million, a 30 per cent discount on the standard terms. Participation from 2028 onwards would need to be negotiated separately.

Is the scheme free movement by another name?

The government says no, and its critics disagree. Ministers describe the scheme as a controlled, time-limited visa route, not free movement. The key differences, as set out by the government, are that stays would be capped in length, numbers would be capped, participants would need a dedicated visa, and they would have no access to benefits and no right to bring dependants. Free movement, by contrast, allowed EU citizens to live and work in the UK indefinitely, with access to benefits and the right to bring family members, and gave UK citizens the same rights across the EU.

Critics of the scheme argue that, once the caps and conditions are negotiated, it could amount to free movement in practice. The debate matters politically because both the previous government and the current one have repeatedly ruled out a return to free movement. The House of Commons Library notes that the scheme has proved one of the most difficult parts of the reset to negotiate, precisely because of this political sensitivity on both sides.

What is still being argued about?

Several issues remain unresolved. The first is the cap on numbers. Reports in early 2026 said the UK was seeking a cap of under 50,000 young people a year coming to the UK, while the EU rejected a cap and favoured an annual review of numbers with a possible "emergency brake" if numbers were viewed as too high. Later reports suggested the UK had raised its offer to between 75,000 and 80,000 places a year, while the EU was pushing for 100,000. The draft summit text reported in early November sets no cap at all, which suggests the numbers question may still be open.

The second dispute is over university tuition fees. The EU has asked that EU students studying at UK universities should pay the same fees as UK students. Since the UK left the EU, EU students have been charged the international fee, which is significantly higher than the maximum domestic rate. UK universities have warned that cutting those fees would reduce income they use to cross-subsidise teaching for domestic students. Reports at the beginning of November 2026 said a leaked draft statement involved a UK commitment to negotiate a separate agreement on tuition fees, with financial compensation for universities to make up the shortfall.

A third sticking point is the immigration health surcharge, the charge visa applicants pay for use of the NHS. The EU has asked for the surcharge to be waived for scheme participants, while the UK has insisted that participants should pay it. The reported figure in the talks is £1,035. A further complication is that individual EU member states would each need to agree to grant work visas to young people from the UK under the scheme, so the deal is not only between London and Brussels.

There is also a wider trade-off in the talks. Reports suggest the government has sought to link the youth scheme to a separate UK request to be included in the EU's "made in Europe" plans, which aim to limit some public and commercial spending in the EU to EU-made products. The reported draft deal would make the tuition-fee agreement dependent on an EU commitment on that point.

What happens next?

Ministers are in Brussels today, 10 November, for the third meeting of the withdrawal agreement joint committee and for talks with EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič ahead of the summit. The House of Commons Library says an agreement on the youth experience scheme is expected to be announced at the UK-EU summit in Brussels on 20 November 2026, where Andy Burnham is due to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. The UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly is also due to discuss youth mobility at its meeting in the UK Parliament on 16 and 17 November.

Until an agreement is announced, nothing is final. There is no application form, no fee and no start date, and anyone offering to sell a place on the scheme should be treated with caution. Young people interested in the scheme should check the official GOV.UK pages for updates, as the rules can change during negotiations, and should not pay any agent claiming to secure a place. This article is a general explainer, not personal immigration advice.

If the deal is signed on 20 November as expected, the next step would be detailed work on the visa itself: the age range, the length of stay, the annual cap, the fee and the health surcharge, and the arrangements in each EU member state. Only then would it be possible to say exactly who can apply, when, and on what terms.