“Cooperation is more important than ever and we’re on the right path,” EU ambassador Pedro Serrano told the IHEF 2026 conference last week.
“There is no doubt the EU and UK are not only partners but friends.”
Serrano welcomed the UK’s reassociation to the Erasmus+ scheme, praising the fact over 160 UK universities had submitted applications to receive funding from the next round of the program.
“In this chapter of the relationship, people-to-people contacts have deep strategic meaning because this is about ensuring that our societies continue to know each other and continue to understand each other,” Serrano told delegates.
He hailed the “positive” developments of the anticipated Youth Experience Scheme and hinted at the initiative’s launch at an upcoming UK-EU summit following “precise terms” being ironed out.
“It is not freedom of movement; it is visa based. That is one of the red lines of the Labour government,” he added.
But fresh media reports suggest progress has stalled, primarily due to the UK demanding a 50,000-person cap on EU mobility into the UK – something Europe has purportedly refused, favouring unlimited visas with annual reviews on numbers and possible “emergency brakes”.
What’s more, it is understood EU policymakers now want European students to be charged domestic UK tuition fees, creating another sticking point for negotiations.
A UK government spokesperson told The PIE they would “not give a running commentary on ongoing talks”.
They said the UK was “working together with the EU” to create a final “balanced” scheme that is time-limited, capped and “based on our existing youth mobility schemes” with countries like New Zealand and Australia.
Such initiatives give participants significant flexibility, allowing them to change between work, study and travel as they wish.
International connectivity now has an overt security dimension
Maddalaine Ansell, British Council
Despite disagreements over the mobility scheme, UK-EU relations have warmed considerably under the current government, which ran on a platform of resetting the European relationship.
“Things have changed since I came in 2022 and the clear direction is strengthening the partnership,” Serrano said, adding it was “vital to ensure our societies remain linked”.
The UK minister for skills Jacqui Smith told the conference she was “delighted” the UK was rejoining Erasmus+, which she said was an “important part” of the country’s European reset.
Smith emphasised the program was “bigger and broader” than when the UK left it in 2020, with 100,000 UK citizens set to benefit from international exchange opportunities in the first year.
Meanwhile, Serrano said the focus of Erasmus+ had shifted away from year-long placements for language students, urging UK stakeholders to “think broader” and bear in mind opportunities to support students in all fields of study for programs of differing lengths.
Beyond the benefits for students and staff, British Council education director Maddalaine Ansell doubled down on the strategic importance of such schemes in the current geopolitical climate.
“International connectivity now has an overt security dimension,” she told delegates: “[Erasmus+] is a positive way to build connection with European neighbours at a time when Russia is threatening”.
Elsewhere, speakers lauded the “immense added value” of the UK rejoining the Horizon Europe research initiative in 2024 – with the UK benefitting from over one billion pounds in funding over the past two years, said Seranno.
As negotiations are underway about doubling Horizon’s next round of funding, Serrano said it was “very important” the UK remained a part of Horizon, though elsewhere, experts said a dramatic hike in contributions paid to the program could be met with political opposition at home.
