2024-10-15 07:37:00
Switzerland and the European Union want to strike a deal by the end of the year that would restore relations, but tortuous negotiations still appear far from the finish line.
The EU General Affairs Council – which brings together European ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states – is set to “take stock” of ties between Brussels and Bern at a meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Swiss President Viola Amherd will meet in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday, as Poland will hold the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2025.
EU-Switzerland ties are currently governed by a patchwork of more than 120 agreements.
Discussions began in 2008 on a comprehensive agreement that would harmonize the legal framework, but in May 2021 Switzerland suddenly pulled the plug on issues related to free movement and wages.
Ties between Switzerland and the EU, its main trading partner, have since become strained, although a new process of talks was launched last March.
Announcement
Immigration: the main obstacle
Switzerland has been part of the Schengen area since 2008.
About a quarter of Switzerland’s inhabitants are foreigners. Of these, 72% come from the EU or the three European Free Trade Association countries of Switzerland.
Switzerland wants an escape clause that would suspend the free movement of people with the EU in certain circumstances, which observers say could include a high unemployment rate or a massive influx of European workers.
“It seems like a very steep mountain path, because it is a request that was not foreseen when the negotiations started,” Rene Schwok, a professor at the University of Geneva’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, told AFP.
For Brussels this is “a step too far”, according to an internal European Commission note cited by the Swiss newspaper Blick.
The commission declined to comment on the safeguard request, but spokesman Balazs Ujvari said “much progress has been made” in the talks.
“There is a lot of work going on,” he acknowledged, but “the goal is to conclude the negotiations by the end of the year.”
Behind the initial initiative is the UDC, the largest Swiss party, far right and “totally against the free movement of people”.
“But the news is that now other parties are also in favor of the clause: the right-wing parties, the center-right and even some socialists, because they believe that immigration is too high for public opinion,” he explained.
Announcement
Piece by piece
Brussels is careful not to give the impression that countries might have an à la carte approach to the EU.
The new negotiations are based on sensational sector-by-sector agreements.
The idea is to update five agreements: free movement of people; land transport; air transport; agriculture; and mutual recognition of conformity assessments – and to forge new agreements on electricity, food safety and health.
Also at stake is Switzerland’s participation in European programs in many sectors, including research, culture and sport, while the EU calls for the opening of the Swiss rail market.
“Apart from free movement, the feedback we have is that on the other points of the negotiations significant progress has been made,” says Darius Farman, a research associate at Foraus, a think tank on Swiss foreign policy.
Status quo or slow erosion?
In addition to free movement, compromise will be needed on other issues, including the treatment of posted workers and social benefits paid to foreigners.
The Swiss parliament would have a say in any outcome, as would Swiss voters in a referendum.
The People’s Party, which refuses to “throw Switzerland into the EU”, remains firmly opposed to any rapprochement with Brussels.
Schwok said that if negotiations failed, the result would not be the status quo but rather a “slow erosion” of existing agreements due to their failure to update them.
“This would gradually call into question Switzerland’s access to the European internal market,” he added.
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