Parliament wants renewal of migration agreement with Austria
Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th 2023, 10:20
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The Swiss parliament is calling on the Federal Council to negotiate a new migration agreement with Austria. This agreement should guarantee the readmission of persons residing illegally in the country.
After the National Council had already spoken out in favor of adapting and supplementing such an agreement in June, the Council of States did the same on Wednesday. The existing agreement between Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland has been in force since the beginning of 2001.
The Federal Council also believes that the agreement should be amended. However, the national government wrote to the Federal Councillors that the Austrian asylum structures are currently overloaded. Austria does not currently consider negotiations on the renewal of the agreement to be a priority.
Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the Council on Wednesday that she regularly receives information from her Austrian counterpart and that it is not currently the time for negotiations. In addition to heavily burdened asylum structures, Austria is also raising legal concerns.
The Council of States nevertheless adopted the motion by former Ticino Central National Councillor Marco Romano. This was in order to encourage the Federal Council to "continue the negotiations with intensity", as the pre-advisory committee wrote in the majority's motion to the Council of States.
Romano cited the readmission agreement between Switzerland and Italy as a model for a renewed agreement between Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein.
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