Beat Jans hopes for more sovereignty through bilateral agreements
Published: Tuesday, Jul 23rd 2024, 07:20
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Justice Minister Beat Jans believes that Switzerland's sovereignty and ability to act will be strengthened by possible new bilateral agreements with the EU. In a networked world, one strengthens one's own sovereignty by regulating relations with important partners, he wrote in a newspaper commentary on Tuesday.
Binding rules that have been agreed upon and can be relied upon in extraordinary situations are important, wrote the SP Federal Councillor in a guest commentary in the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung".
With two partners of unequal size, the rules are almost existential for the smaller partner. This is because the larger partner can "also assert its interests with power", said Jans. Switzerland knows the effects of such a "power play" from its own experience: the EU's measures against the Swiss stock exchange, the Swiss medical technology location and Swiss research are a bad memory.
Switzerland was unable to prevent this because the two sides had not yet agreed on a new treaty package and thus a binding set of rules, Jans continued. "With an agreement, we are therefore strengthening our sovereignty and defining clear rules that protect us." The "Bilaterals III" would create legal certainty - for Swiss scientists as well as for SMEs that want to do business with European partners.
Jans countered the assertion that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would have the last word on disputes in future: This is "simply wrong", according to the Federal Councillor. The ECJ interprets European law in the same way as the Federal Supreme Court interprets Swiss law. Disputes would not be decided by one court or the other, but by an arbitration tribunal with equal representation.
In the guest commentary, Jans also rejected the claim that a dynamic adoption of the law undermines sovereignty. According to the Minister of Justice, dynamic does not mean automatic. The dynamic adoption of law would only apply to new EU regulations that affect access to the EU internal market. It is Switzerland that wants this access. It would also still be possible to say no at the price of proportionate compensatory measures.
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