The Swiss government yesterday announced the interruption of negotiations with the European Union in view of an institutional agreement, which would have strengthened the bond between the two parties. The choice, which came after seven years of negotiations, was welcomed “with regret” by the European Commission. Currently, the relationship is supported by about a hundred bilateral agreements which, in the absence of a framework agreement, risk eroding over time, according to Brussels.
Speaking in Bern, Swiss President Guy Parmelin announced that Switzerland would “put an end” to the ongoing negotiations. The decision comes after many in the Swiss Confederation feared that an agreement would call into question the country’s full sovereignty. At the same time, the Swiss executive wanted to keep the door open to new negotiations: “We are opening a new chapter in our relations, hopefully fruitful,” Parmelin wished.
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After expressing regret for an all-in-all expected choice, the European Commission warned that without a framework agreement “the modernization of our relations will not be possible and our bilateral agreements will inevitably age: 50 years have passed since the agreement entered into force. of free trade, 20 years from the bilateral agreements I and II. Already today I am not up to par with how relations between the European Union and Switzerland should and could be ».
The negotiations began following a Swiss referendum that jeopardized the free movement of European citizens (see Il Sole / 24 Ore of 14 February 2014). There are three obstacles to an agreement: the rules on state aid; the free movement of persons; wage levels. The Alpine country is closely linked to its neighbors. 1.4 million EU citizens reside in Switzerland, while 344,000 workers travel across the border every day to work in the Confederation.
In Brussels, EU officials insisted that in these years of negotiations the Commission had not failed to show good will. A preliminary text was finalized in 2018, but then placed in the freezer by Bern. In the documentation published yesterday, the community executive stressed the negative implications of the no agreement. “The 120 bilateral agreements are static texts, which without a framework agreement are doomed to die”, explains a community representative.