Amid growing criticism of Brexit’s impact on young people’s opportunities and calls for the UK’s full reintegration into Erasmus+, it has been revealed that the UK government chose to leave the European exchange scheme because it deemed not enough British students speak a foreign language well enough to take advantage of such programmes.
Not in taxpayers’ interests
Speaking at a meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Nick Leake, a senior UK Mission diplomat, said the British “inability to speak languages very well and therefore to take advantage of the outward mobility opportunities” had deterred further UK investment in the scheme.
Continued membership was at that time not in “the interests of the UK taxpayer” he said, due to the terms on offer during Brexit negotiations, which would have meant “an imbalance” in payments, with the UK required “to pay €2 billion more than we would have received over the course of a 7-year program”, or approximately €300 million a year. Leake sought to distance himself from that rationale, adding “I appreciate that’s not necessarily the only measure of success, but it makes it quite difficult.”
Lost opportunities
The UK’s exit from the Erasmus+ programme has “resulted in a devastating loss of exchange and educational opportunities for young people on both sides of the Channel,” Maurizio Cuttin, British Youth Council’s ambassador to the European Youth Forum, told Politico.
The UK’s replacement scheme, known as Turing, has meanwhile fallen 43% short of expectations, according to an official UK analysis, which found higher education institutions complaining about the application processes. In 2021/22, only 20,000 people participated in the scheme, against a target of 35,000.
“The UK government owes it to its young people to provide opportunities to unlock a brighter, skills-induced and prosperous future,” Cuttin said, pointing to Erasmus+ as “undoubtedly the way forward. Students, apprentices and young volunteers deserve nothing less.”
Full reintegration
Putting her weight behind the drive to improve the situation, the President of the European Youth Forum, María Rodríguez Alcázar, called for the implementation of “all the recommendations in the EESC’s opinion, including the UK’s reassociation to Erasmus+.”
Following approval by the EESC’s external relations section, 77 votes to zero, with one abstention, the body has recommended the European Commission “strengthen negotiations with the UK government for the full reintegration of the UK into Erasmus+,” a position it said was “officially and strongly supported by both the European Youth Forum and British Youth Council, as well as by many youth organizations across the UK and the EU.”
