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The UK has struck a “warmer tone� over plans for a future youth experience programme with the EU, but significant disagreements still need to be resolved, says a UK-EU relations think tank.

Plans to help young EU citizens spend time in the UK and vice versa via a “dedicated visa path� were set out in this spring’s UK/EU summit, and this was further reinforced by recent comments by UK ministers about wanting an “ambitious� deal offering new opportunities.

The topic is sure to come up again in 2026’s UK-EU summit, whose date has not yet been set but is likely to be around May again - which is also the point at which the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement comes up for review. 

However, details remain to be clarified, including quotas of participants and what the visa will allow, eg. work – and which sectors, study, being an au pair or simply travelling.

Summit papers stated the UK and EU aimed to “ensure the overall number of participants is acceptable to both sides�, but this is likely to be one of the hardest elements to agree on, says The UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE). Others include the level of various fees.

The UK’s minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, states he wants the scheme to work in much the same way as the UK’s existing “youth mobility� schemes aimed at under-35s or under-30s from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Monaco and several other countries. These all allow work and have quotas.

Read more: UK-EU plan for easy work and study for under-30s: what is proposed?

Australia currently has the highest annual allocation - 45,000 places. However, uptake is usually far lower than the cap: according to the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, Australians can come for two years (extendable by one year).

With the EU’s 450 million population, compared with Australia’s 27 million, it is likely hoping for a higher cap, but the UK may be wary about impacts on net migration figures, which Labour pledged to reduce.

The EU is also said to consider the UK’s visa fees (£319/€370 for existing schemes) high and to want a waiver from the ‘immigration health surcharge’ – usually £770/€887 per year. It is also likely to push for lower tuition fees.

Such demands will be “outside the UK’s comfort zone� but it will have to make some concessions to avoid “derailing wider negotiations� on other aspects, such as more relaxed food trading rules, says UKICE.