A strong case for better freedom of movement across Europe for UK citizens - Yorkshire Post Letters

Polling consistently indicates that there is widespread support for extending the provisions of the Youth Mobility Scheme to all EU countries and on January 15 MPs took the first step towards making this happen when a ten-minute bill presented by Lewes MP James MacCleary was passed without opposition.

The UK enjoys successful youth mobility arrangements with 13 non-EU countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan, Iceland, and Uruguay. A reciprocal EU-UK scheme would enable young British people to live, study and work in the EU’s 27 member states, learning life-enhancing new skills which would likely have a positive effect on their future employability.

The Internet allows readers to familiarise themselves with the minutiae of the scheme if they so wish. Youth mobility isn’t a return to freedom of movement. The UK has never had freedom of movement with Japan for example, yet a scheme is in place to allow young people to benefit from a social, cultural and linguistic experience which can bring lifelong benefits.

Why not with our closest neighbours? This would give extra impetus to the teaching of foreign languages here.

It's difficult to grasp why anyone would want to deprive young people of the rights that previous generations had to travel, live, study and work freely throughout our continent, rights which His Majesty’s subjects in Northern Ireland and professional footballers retain, but not the hard-working ‘A’ level languages student.

Let’s hope that what was in effect a parliamentary motion can now be championed by the government and made into a bill that will give substance to Sir Keir’s desire for a positive reset in our relationship with the EU.

Further moves could include rejoining the Erasmus student exchange programme and signing up to other cultural, scientific and educational initiatives such as the Iris2 space programme giving Europe from Ireland to Poland the security of its own satellite network.

Many would also welcome abolition of data roaming charges achievable by adopting the EU ‘roam like home’ policy. Switzerland and Norway benefit from most of these arrangements and appear not to suffer loss of sovereignty.

I look forward to a youth mobility scheme soon so that my grandchildren can reap the benefits just like their Australian-born Irish passport holding cousins.