Starmer hints at free mobility for young people with the EU

LondonThe raw sincerity displayed on Tuesday by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, when he announced to his fellow citizens that taxes will have to be raised, and that October’s budget “will be painful”does not go any further. And even less so when the end is hinted at on the horizon Brexit or the possibility of free movement between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) is suggested, although only for young people between 18 and 30 years old, and for a limited time.

Brexitthe mother of many of the ills of the British Isles in recent years, remains the Holy Grail of the xenophobic and anarcho-liberal right, and Labour, who has not been in power for even a hundred daysis acting with lead feet. He does not want anyone to accuse the party of “subverting the will of the people”, the populist slogan invoked at the time of the referendum in 2016. The result is that the premier is able to say something and its opposite at the same time. And without blushing.

This is what he did on Wednesday in Berlin, where Starmer first closed the door to a pact to encourage mobility between young people from the Union and the United Kingdom and then did not rule out the creation of some kind of system to establish similar links. For example, student exchanges. London abandoned the Erasmus programme when the divorce with the Union was completed. And in Brexitland it is necessary to rename things to make them digestible.

He premier He had traveled to the German capital to, in his words, lay the foundations for “an ambitious reset” of relations with Germany and with Europe. A reset, however, that should in no case mean “reversing Brexit, or re-entering the single market and the customs union”. In other words, squaring the circle: closer than after Brexit but not as close as before.

The meeting was the fifth between Olaf Scholz and Starmer since the Labour victory on 4 July. Its main objective was to negotiate a bilateral cooperation treaty. Science, technology, development, business and migration policy are its basic themes, which do not fall under the scope of the European Commission’s reserved matters, such as trade. Before the end of the year, London would like to have ratified a protocol that mirrors the one signed between France and the United Kingdom in 2010.

There was also a recurring theme hanging over the summit, which the European Commission had already put on the table in April. At that time, President Ursula von der Leyen proposed to Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street the signing of a programme to facilitate the reciprocal freedom of movement of young people aged 18 to 30, with the aim of allowing them to work and study for a period of up to four years. Brussels believes that the decline in mobility of young people between the 27 and the islands is one of the most damaging effects of Brexit, especially in the long term.

London then said no. Double refusal: from the government and from the opposition, which was then headed by Starmer, who did not want to appear months before the elections as the premier that he would betray Brexit and restore the free movement of people. It was the same prudence – or lack of courage to talk about the real needs of the country’s economy – that he showed in Berlin this afternoon, when he said yes but no, but maybe. Because in the German capital Starmer declared: “We have no plans for a youth mobility plan, but we do have plans for a closer relationship between us and the EU.” What did he mean?

The EU is maintaining its offer for the time being, while London is rejecting it or trying to redecorate it. Brussels wants a global agreement and not for the United Kingdom to negotiate bilaterally with the countries of its preference – France, Germany, Spain and Italy – in order to marginalise, above all, those in the east.

According to Catherine Barnard, a specialist in relations with the European Union from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, “there is a lot of pressure to relax mobility rules for young people” on both sides of the Channel. Indeed, last week the British press again reported that such a possibility was being considered by the Labour government.

Starmer hinted at this possibility in Berlin in a convoluted way. “Any future talks with the EU on a deal to improve Brexit would be based on our red lines, including the veto on the free movement of people.” As Professor Barnard recalls, “youth mobility should not be confused with the free movement of people” prevailing in the Union.

He premier He is trying to pull the wool over his eyes to open the door for young Europeans to fill the UK’s failing universities while working and earning a few pounds serving beer combs or working as baristas in cafes. On the other hand, the university sector, which is suffering a galloping crisis due to the increase in tuition fees and restrictions on Europeans, will end up sinking, and the hospitality sector without labour. Starmer knows this, but he also knows that he cannot tell the whole truth. Or he does not dare to do so. Because Brexit is still populist gunpowder.