(Edinburgh West) (LD):
May I welcome the new Minister and indeed the whole team to the
Front Bench? I am sure that the Minister will agree that his most
important role may be in repairing that broken relationship with
the European Union for our security, for our defence and, most
importantly, for our economy. Given the new Prime Minister's
focus on mission-driven Government, and with our recent return to
Horizon Europe, what discussions did he have—or will he
have—about extending the youth mobility scheme to the European
Union? That would give thousands of young people the chance to
live, work and study abroad and increase our cultural and
economic links with Europe again.
The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (): The Government
have been clear that we will not be returning to freedom of
movement, but clearly we want economic and cultural ties to be
far closer than they are at the moment—indeed, closer than they
were under the previous Government. That is in the interests of
the UK and in the interests of the EU. On the economic side, the
Government have already set out their objective of a sanitary and
phytosanitary agreement to achieve mutual recognition of
professional qualifications to help our excellent services
sector, as well as to ease the position for our travelling
musicians around
Europe, which is hugely important to our cultural soft power.
