UK-EU reset: the migration balancing act

Late-night negotiations. Hushed conversations in corridors. Diplomats making frantic phone calls. So much of yesterday’s reset talks looked and sounded eerily familiar to me.

A decade ago, I was the deputy spokesperson for the Foreign Office in Brussels, based in the multilateral embassy known as UKRep. While the city has a (hugely unfair) reputation for being a dull, cold bureaucracy full of grey-suit-wearing paper-pushers, to me it has always meant something very different. Brussels is where I cut my teeth as a plucky, if slightly idealistic civil servant, and my experiences there invariably shaped much of my world view.

Plucky, idealistic, young me - top left

The talks this week have been marked by a quiet, considered diplomacy, with the wins on everything other than fisheries largely downplayed. On my beat - immigration and asylum policy - there was surprisingly little said, but behind the scenes, officials made decent strides forward.

Taking e-passports aside, there are two key elements of the talks associated with immigration. The first is the youth mobility scheme and the second is the security and defence pact (because, as ever, migration is viewed through the lens of national and international security, with those on the move seen as a threat to be managed).

The youth mobility scheme will give people aged 18-30 the chance to study, work or volunteer in another European country for a year. It's likely to be capped - estimates suggest between 50-70,000 young people may move in both directions, in and out of Britain, offering them the chance to learn a new language, soak up a different culture and explore the world beyond their borders.

And, hurrah: Britain will once again take part in the Erasmus+ programme. The year I spent in the south of France during my undergraduate degree was undoubtedly one of the best of my life. I attribute that experience to the reason why I went on to travel widely and felt comfortable moving to new countries and making a life for myself there. Ultimately, Erasmus was the reason I ended up following the career path(s) I have. It's not hard to see why even Reform-leaning voters support it: now their children and grandchildren will have access to those opportunities, too.

Politically, though, the mobility scheme may well prove thorny for Labour. The numbers arriving in the UK will be subsumed within the immigration figures - and the government has just announced that it is looking to slash the number of international students and workers coming into the country. With the net migration figures due out next week, Starmer and Yvette Cooper will likely be lambasted by the right for seeking to curb one visa route while making concessions on another.

On security: I wrote in my book about calls from law enforcement and Home Office civil servants to regain access to databases lost following Brexit. One of those is Eurodac, where fingerprints and other biometric data is stored. It tells the authorities at all ports of entry (not only Dover) whether a new arrival has claimed asylum elsewhere already, or has a criminal record, or anything else they should have declared.

Over the weekend Starmer’s civil servants managed to renegotiate access to systems like these, as well as closer intelligence-sharing and improved working with Interpol. While there isn't much to celebrate about the government’s approach to immigration - not least following its ill-advised white paper reforms announced last week - both this and the youth mobility scheme are wins for the general public. Shame those successes will be muted for fear of upsetting Brexiteers.

While Reform, the Conservatives and the rightwing press have, of course, dubbed the various deals a betrayal, it is politically and economically expedient to move closer to the EU again. These changes - which go further than many thought they would - are vital for soft diplomacy and influence, not only in Europe but around the world. Starmer now needs to stick to his guns and ensure he doesn’t weaken his resolve once the Eurosceptic voices inevitably attempt to crowd him out. If last week's lurch to the right is anything to go by, that may prove challenging for the Prime Minister and his government.

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