The EU wants the UK to allow Free Movement again

With 6 million already in the UK, how many more will come and end up staying?

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

We reveal the EU Commission’s creeping plans for the UK to open its doors again

Yesterday (18 Apr 2024) the EU Commission announced proposals to open discussions with the UK to allow free movement again, initially for young people aged 18-30. The Commission goes on to say this agreement “could be usefully supported by a parallel discussion on the possible association of the UK to Erasmus+”.

Facts4EU.Org has previously reported on the extent to which the EU’s Freedom of Movement increased the UK’s population by six million. We have also reported on the way in which the EU’s Erasmus programme was vastly expensive for the UK taxpayer and mostly used by EU27 students and teachers.

Here is what the EU Commission statement said yesterday

“The withdrawal of the UK from the EU has resulted in decreased mobility between the EU and the UK.

This situation has particularly affected the opportunities for young people to experience life on the other side of the Channel and to benefit from youth, cultural, educational, research and training exchanges.”

They go on to say their plans are “to enable young people to move without being tied to a purpose (i.e. to allow for studying, training or working), or quota-bound.” In addition, “The Commission's proposal on an EU-UK agreement on youth mobility could be usefully supported by a parallel discussion on the possible association of the UK to Erasmus+.”

How many UK university students actually benefited from Erasmus+?

This is the key question. How many students benefited from the billions the UK spent with the EU on the Erasmus+ programme?

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

99.6% of UK students didn’t even use the EU’s youth system, while EU27 students benefited hugely

© Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge

  • Erasmus+ was used by only 9,993 UK students in the pre-Covid year of 2019 [Source: EU Commission]
  • That's less than 10,000 out of a total of 2,383,970 higher education students in the UK [source:HESA]
  • Only 0.4% of UK students in higher education used the EU's Erasmus+
  • 99.6% of UK students did not even use it at all
  • This alone makes the costs completely unjustifiable

The UK’s reaction to all of this

According to the EU Commission, the UK government has responded positively : “The UK has shown interest in the issue by reaching out to a number of Member States on youth mobility. With this proposal, the Commission seeks to address this matter of common concern in an EU-wide manner.”

Observations

No. No. No. This is an example of the creeping process of drawing the United Kingdom – and its money – back into a form of EU membership. We did not fight tooth and nail against David Cameron and his government - and the combined Establishment - only to see this happen.

For the last eight years the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team has kept up the fight, despite Remainer-Rejoiners saying “Look, you won. Let it go.” This proposal from the EU Commission yesterday is precisely why we have continued in existence, despite our rapidly dwindling resources.

With Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party calling for “closer alignment” with the EU, there seems little doubt that a new Labour government would look even more favourably on this plan than Rishi Sunak’s administration.

Our response is simple. People from the EU should have the same rights to travel to the United Kingdom as Aussies, Kiwis, and all other nationalities. When it comes to the EU’s so-called student exchange programme called Erasmus+, we reject this emphatically. It was the EU27’s students and EU and UK teachers who benefited, not British students, and yet the UK paid an enormous sum for this.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

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[ Sources: EU Commission | HESA ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 19 Apr 2024

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