EU, Swiss hail ‘historic’ new deal resetting relations

Bern: The European Union and Switzerland announced on Dec 20 they had sealed a new set of agreements aimed at recalibrating relations between the two neighbours.

The deal, reached after years of sometimes difficult negotiations, has already been denounced by the powerful, hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and Swiss unions have also expressed concerns.

And it will almost certainly be put directly to Swiss voters in a referendum.

The agreement is a bid to stabilise ties between the Alpine nation and the surrounding EU bloc, currently tangled up in more than 120 separate agreements.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen travelled to the Swiss capital Bern to unveil the reset with Switzerland’s President Viola Amherd.

“This agreement between the EU and Switzerland is historic,” she said.

“This marks the beginning of a long-lasting cooperation.

“For people in Switzerland and the EU, this agreement is an excellent basis for many good years together… we are as close as we could possibly be.”

Ms Amherd described the deal as a “milestone for the stabilisation and further development” of relations between the two countries.

“This is in the interests of Switzerland’s and the EU’s population, our economies, employees, consumers, students and researchers.”

The government was “convinced that the outcome of the negotiation is good and beneficial to both partners”, she added.

Ms Amherd acknowledged that the government’s green light was just the first step on the road to refreshing relations between Switzerland and its biggest trading partner.

After legal review and formal conclusion, “Switzerland, its parliament and voters will take the lead,” she said.

Under the country’s direct-democracy system, the public will likely have the final word in a referendum.

And the SVP, the country’s biggest party, is fiercely opposed to any rapprochement with the EU.

Earlier on Dec 20, SVP lawmakers stood outside the parliament in Bern holding up candles in what they called a vigil “for our independence and democracy”.

They denounced what they called the “package of lies” in the “EU submission treaty”, saying Switzerland would be forced to pay hundreds of millions of francs to the “crisis-ridden EU”.

It argued that the government’s “logic is simply perverse: it is handing us Swiss over to the EU – and we are supposed to pay for it!”

SVP president Marcel Dettling said they were “fighting for the self-determination of the Swiss people”.

A sticking point in the talks had been Switzerland’s efforts to secure an exemption to the EU’s cherished free movement of people between countries.

Bern and Brussels have spent years working on simplifying and harmonising their ties.

Relations plunged when Switzerland suddenly slammed the door on the talks in 2021.

Negotiations tentatively resumed in March, and with the goal of getting a deal by the end of the year, the two sides met around 200 times.

Unlike previous attempts to seal an overarching framework agreement, the latest talks sought to update existing agreements and conclude new ones on issues such as electricity, health and food safety.