The Federal Council is ready for new negotiations with Brussels
Published: Friday, Mar 8th 2024, 17:50
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The Federal Council is ready for new negotiations on Switzerland's future relations with the EU. It has refined and sharpened its draft mandate and adopted it on Friday. Negotiations will begin as soon as the European Commission has received the final mandate.
According to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), this is likely to happen in March. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the media in Bern that good relations with neighbors are essential in view of the crises worldwide and that Switzerland's high level of prosperity is under pressure because of these crises.
Most important economic partner
The EU is Switzerland's most important economic partner. Negotiations are being conducted using the package approach proposed by the Federal Council and positively received in the consultation. He hopes that the negotiations will be concluded by the end of the year, said Cassis. But: "A hope is not a goal."
The individual parts of the negotiation package are to be negotiated in parallel. On the Swiss side, chief negotiator Patric Franzen - who is Deputy State Secretary of the FDFA - is responsible for the overall management. Each element of the package will be negotiated by Franzen and the specialist negotiator from the responsible department.
FDFA State Secretary Alexandre Fasel heads the interdepartmental working group that will coordinate the work carried out in Switzerland with that carried out as part of the negotiations. The project organization set up in September 2022 under the leadership of Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis will remain in place.
Mandate published
The Federal Council published the negotiating mandate on Friday. The EU will do the same, said Cassis. The aim is to avoid any suspicion of secret negotiations. Everyone should be able to compare the result with the mandate one day. Switzerland would probably not be able to achieve all its goals. That is normal.
Negotiations with Brussels should therefore be able to resume after a break of almost three years. In May 2021, the Federal Council broke off negotiations on a framework agreement with Brussels. After seven years of negotiations, there was no prospect of success, it was said at the time.
In consultations on the negotiating mandate, a large majority of the stakeholders consulted expressed a positive view of the package approach for the negotiations, said Cassis. The Federal Council had adopted the majority of the recommendations from the consultations and strengthened and sharpened its draft mandate from December.
Criticized electricity agreement
However, it has not taken into account wishes in the area of electricity - the proposed electricity agreement was criticized in various ways during the hearings. Among other things, the Federal Council mentions the exclusion of electricity production from the scope of the agreement.
With regard to wage protection, the Federal Council wants to guarantee wage and working conditions. For the regulation of expenses, it is striving for a solution that guarantees legal equality, taking into account the Swiss price level. With regard to security deposits, the aim is to achieve a comparable effect to the current deposit system.
In order for the outcome of the negotiations with the EU to be acceptable to a majority in domestic politics, it needs the support of the social partners. The federal government will not exert any pressure on the associations, State Secretary Helene Budliger Artieda told the media. "The social partners must come to an agreement."
The EU's expenses regulations are not applicable to Switzerland, she said. The federal government and the social partners were in agreement on this. The first step now was to find a solution with the EU in the foreign policy process. If this did not succeed, which everyone would regret, domestic policy measures would have to be taken.
Analysis of the referendum question
In the words of chief negotiator Patric Franzen, the biggest challenge in negotiations is the close coordination of foreign policy with domestic policy. "That is the key to success."
The Federal Council has not yet decided whether the outcome of the negotiations should be subject to an optional or mandatory referendum - i.e. whether a majority of the cantons should be required. It has commissioned a legal analysis from the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP).
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