Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Diplomatic efforts fail to break Swiss-EU deadlock

Swiss State Secretary Livia Leu
Swiss State Secretary Livia Leu faioled to draw concessions from the European Commission. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Switzerland is no closer to regaining full access to European Union science and education collaborative programmes, despite a further round of exploratory talks between the two sides on Friday.

The EU first banned, and later only partially re-admitted, Swiss participation in its flagship Horizon Europe projects after a souring of political relations.

Diplomats have been tasked with exploring potential options after intensive top level negotiations between ministers to find a way forwards broke down last year.

A fourth exploratory round of talks ended with no concessions, Swiss State Secretary Livia Leu said on Friday.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t see much movement today,” said Leu in Brussels. “The EU Commission continues to uphold its position as a means of exerting pressure.”

A fifth round of talks, this time exploring Switzerland’s future contributions to a fund aimed at reducing economic and social disparities between EU member states, will take place on October 12.

Switzerland has agreed to pay a further CHF1.3 billion ($1.3 billion) so-called ‘cohesion’ payment, but there is no long term plan for future contributions.

Experts from both sides will also tackle the subject of the free movement of people in the next few weeks, said Leu.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Beer sales dampened by bad weather

More

Beer sales in Switzerland watered down by bad weather

This content was published on The past brewing year fell through in Switzerland, partly due to the bad weather. Beer sales shrank again. For the first time, per capita consumption fell below the 50 liter mark.

Read more: Beer sales in Switzerland watered down by bad weather

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR