EU’s free movement scheme gets cold response from UK

LONDON- The government of the United Kingdom has discarded a European Union offer that would have eased youngsters to study and work inside the European Union.

The European Commission had proposed the arrangement for youngsters aged 18-30 as Brexit had restricted their mobility.

However, Downing Street has refused the offer, stating that the free movement within the EU has ended.

The United Kingdom already runs a program with some non-EU countries to let people stay in the UK for up to two years but the EU’s proposal has been shot down.

“We are not introducing an EU-wide youth mobility scheme – free movement within the EU was ended and there are no plans to introduce it,” a government spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

At the moment, the UK has individual youth mobility schemes with 13 countries, and the government said it preferred such bilateral schemes over an EU-wide deal.

The Labour party also rejected the possibility of an EU-wide scheme, saying the party would “seek to improve the UK’s working relationship with the EU within our red lines – no return to the single market, customs union or free movement”.

It is to be clarified that the suggestion came from the high level officials as EC vice-president Maros Sefcovic said Brexit left an impact on the young people in the EU and the UK who would like to study, work and live abroad particularly hard.

The official highlighted that the aim behind the suggestion was to
rebuild human bridges between young Europeans on both sides of the Channel.

The UK government’s cold response has invited criticism as
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said such an agreement would be a “win-win-win”.

Davey opined that no sensible UK government would reject this idea out of hand.