is finished ! Years of negotiations go up in smoke. The framework agreement which was supposed to stabilize relations between Switzerland and the EU will not enter into force. On Wednesday, the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation decided not to follow up. “The conditions necessary for the conclusion of the agreement are therefore not met,” he said.
The 34-page framework agreement was to replace the approximately 120 bilateral agreements in force. In particular, he had to purge the issue of « level playing field » – fair competition – demanded by Europe from Switzerland. The situation had been frozen since November 23, 2018 when the text of the framework agreement was finalized by negotiators from both camps.
Switzerland wanted to remove from the text three problematic points, namely State aid (very regulated within the EU and which diverges from the use made by the Swiss), certain aspects of the free movement of people and the level of wages (protected in Switzerland by support measures controlled by the social partners). The Federal Council thus intended to restrict the directive on European citizenship to anything that goes beyond the free movement of workers. The Swiss authorities demanded seven exceptions so as to exclude Europeans from the right of permanent residence, access to Swiss insurance or additional benefits linked to unemployment insurance.
And now ?
So many additional requests refuted by the European Union which did not wish to open a new negotiation. “The Federal Council nevertheless considers that it is in the common interest of Switzerland and the EU to preserve the future of their bilateral cooperation, which has proven its worth, and to maintain existing agreements. He therefore wishes to engage in a political dialogue with the EU on further cooperation, ”Bern said in a statement.
“Without this agreement, this modernization of our relations will not be possible and our bilateral agreements will inevitably grow old,” indicates the Commission for its part. Fifty years have passed since the entry into force of the free trade agreement, 20 years since “bilateral agreements” I and II. Already today, they are no longer up to what relations between the Union and Switzerland should and deserve to be. We will now carefully analyze the impact of this announcement ”.
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