The UK returns to the Erasmus program, in further proof of the failure of Brexit

LondonNew confirmation of Brexit failureAnd the punishment it has meant for the younger generations affected by the divorce, who have had to accept it without having been able to make their voices heard in the 2016 referendum. The European Union and the United Kingdom announced this Wednesday in a joint statement that London is rejoining the Erasmus student exchange program. May summit", between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the European Commission.

From September 2027, EU students will once again have the opportunity to study, train, and do internships in the UK through this program. And vice versa. As a result of the formalization of BrexitThe UK had abandoned the EU's flagship mobility initiative. Its rejoining is significant news for a generation that has grown up with international educational pathways and sees a valuable door reopened for academic and professional growth outside their countries. Brexit brought, among many other upheavals, a significant break in British-European educational cooperation. Until the 2018-19 academic year, the UK was one of the most important destinations for Erasmus students from Spain: in that last year, almost 4,500 Spanish students participated, and some 4,300 British students studied in Spain, one of the highest figures in the EU for bilateral exchanges. Elcano Royal Institute.

With the UK's departure from the EU and the implementation of new immigration rules, it replaced Erasmus with its own program, the Turing Scheme, which had a global focus but did not guarantee the reciprocity and benefits of the European scheme. This had clear impacts: between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 academic years, enrollments of new EU students at British universities fell by 57%. %This plunged many institutions into serious financial difficulties. The total number of European students decreased significantly, according to data from Migration Observatory, from the University of Oxford.

The return to Erasmus—at a cost to London of 600 million euros—will mean that Europeans and Britons can resume study abroad programs, internships, training, and volunteering under the same conditions as before Brexit: with academic recognition, access to scholarships, and without having to pay international student fees. This opens up opportunities for undergraduate, master's, vocational, and colleges who until now were forced to resort to the Turing Scheme or other less direct alternatives.

The Starmer government responded this Wednesday morning to opposition criticism of the return to Erasmus. As usual, the Prime Minister's cabinet is trying to pretend that the university initiative does not undermine Brexit, fearful of any attack in this regard from both the Conservatives and the Reform Party. But the truth is that London's gradual rapprochement with Brussels is the clearest evidence of the project's lack of viability. BrexiteerNot surprisingly, another announcement made today on both sides of the Channel is that Brussels and London have begun negotiations to integrate the electricity market and also to set a deadline for reaching a trade agreement on food and beverages next year, as well as connecting CO₂ emissions markets.

A lost decade

Almost a decade after the referendum – the anniversary will be in June of next year – the perception among British society is that Brexit has been a bad deal. Opinion polls from YouGov and other polling firms show that Today, a majority of the population (56%) Many believe that voting to leave the EU was a mistake. There is growing support for maintaining closer ties with Europe, and even for reconsidering aspects of the post-Brexit relationship. In fact, YouGov's tracking since 2016 shows that progressively more people believe that "voting to leave was a mistake," and this shift has been sustained over the years.

Demographic changes are also relevant to explaining the evolution of the Brexit debate. Although there is no precise official figure, an analysis by Peter Kellner, founder of YouGov, argues that some 3.2 million voters who voted for Brexit have died since the referendum, as well as approximately 1.8 million of those who voted to remain in the EU. The same study indicates that some 4.1 million Britons who voted to remain have died. leave have changed their minds, in contrast to only 1.1 million of Remainers who would now opt for a break with Brussels. The internal variations within the blog of leave They also show that a significant portion of younger voters now tend to consider Brexit a mistake, while older voters are much more loyal to the original decision.

The generational divide is clearly reflected among young people who were unable to participate in the 2016 referendum. In recent polls, Britons aged 18 to 24 show a strong inclination to consider Brexit a mistake, with percentages reaching as high as 75%. in some polls. When people are asked how they would vote today in a hypothetical new referendum, the option to remain in the EU usually maintains an advantage over the leave (to march), although this margin is reduced when the question is specifically formulated in terms of re-entry.