UK and EU agree to work towards youth mobility deal, document shows

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) -Britain and the European Union have agreed to work towards a deal that would make it easier for young people to live and work across the continent, according to document seen by Reuters on Monday.

The so-called "balanced youth experience" scheme will allow young people from Britain and the EU to work, study, volunteer, or travel, for a limited period of time in each other's countries, the document said.

"The European Commission and the United Kingdom should work towards a balanced youth experience scheme on terms to be mutually agreed," the document said. "It should provide a dedicated visa path and ensure that the overall number of participants is acceptable to both sides."

The plan is part of a wider reset of ties between Britain and the EU to be announced later on Monday, also covering trade, defence and other issues, in the most significant such reset since Brexit.

The British government had until a few months ago rejected the EU's demands for a youth mobility deal, arguing it would be too close to restoring the free movement of people across the bloc that Britain ended when it left the EU in 2020.

Any deal is likely to politically contentious.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's populist, right-wing Reform UK party, has said such a plan would "effectively be a back door to free movement" that was opposed by British voters in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

British officials have said one of the main issues in any negotiation will be how to cap the number of EU students who will be allowed to come to Britain.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, writing by Andrew MacAskill, editing by William James and Sachin Ravikumar)