Working Breakfast: “EU and Switzerland – an Outlook into a beneficial future”
On Thursday, 10th of April 2014 SME Europe, in cooperation with SME Global and the Mission of Switzerland to the European Union organised a breakfast on the future of EU-Swiss relations.
Dr. Paul RÜBIG MEP, honorary President of SME Europe and Member of the EP Committee on Industry, Research and Energy welcomed all participants by indicating the significance of a lively discussion about the current situation and the importance of informing people about the options. He stated that “we now have the chance to create a new situation, which should be a win-win solution for all of us.”
David O’SULLIVAN, Chief Operating Officer of the European External Action Service was the first keynote speaker. He emphasised that “Switzerland is a hugely important partner for the EU”, including economic, cultural and family ties. Nevertheless, the referendum on February 9th 2014, in which 50.3 percent of Swiss voters supported the introduction of quantitative limits to immigration, has “potentially far reaching consequences”. The vote requires the Swiss government to unravel the present agreement, and to request its adjustment from the EU in order to be in consistence with the new article introduced into the Swiss constitution through the referendum. O’Sullivan pointed out, that “this is not going to be an easy conversation to manage”, in particular as long as Switzerland fails to extend the freedom of movement to Croatian citizens. As long as this problem is not solved through the signature of the relevant protocol, the EU suspends negotiations on Swiss full participation in the research programme Horizon 2020 and the exchange programme Erasmus+. Finally, he highlighted that we should not forget that close relations with Switzerland are beneficial to both Switzerland and the EU, and that it is therefore in mutual interest to find a solution to the challenge created by the vote.
Following O’SULLIVAN’s speech, Roberto BALZARETTI, head of Mission of the Swiss Embassy to the European Union took the floor. He started by sharing some data of EU-Swiss relations, which underlined the importance of the cooperation between these two. According to him Switzerland has 500 billion direct investment in the EU and the EU has 600 billion direct investments in Switzerland. He also bear up that EU-Swiss work will not change, just because of the 9th of February and agreed with O’SULLIVAN that we have to try to find a way to base our agreement in a new institutional setting. He also explained that the vote of the people is caused by a fear of globalisation and the increasing pressure on the labour market. The government has three years to implement the legislation. Within these three years it is of major importance to rapidly find a solution for Croatia, to maintain discussion and to build up good project together, in accordance with the new legislation. He also mentioned that it is important to keep on discussions with the EU to find a legislation that is also in accordance with EU’s requests. Concluding BALZARETTI said that “doing the right thing for Swiss also means convincing people that we are doing the right thing.”
The meeting was followed by a lively discussion.