After the meeting, EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic reiterated that the EU was ready to continue negotiating a framework agreement, and that a failure to come to some arrangement soon would lead to an “erosion” of bilateral relations.
The summit came two weeks after Swiss President Guy Parmelin went to Brussels to meet Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, a meeting that largely failed to clear up blockages in bilateral relations.
The 120-odd bilateral deals currently between the EU and Switzerland (which is not part of the EU) are getting “old”, as Sefcovic put it, and the apparent goal of both sides is to regulate relations through an overarching framework agreement.
As for the various EU member states, while “all” underlined the importance of good relations with Switzerland on Tuesday, according to Portuguese minister Ana Paula Zacarias, the immediate neighbours of the Alpine nation were most vocal.
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Swiss-EU talks stall due to ‘substantial differences’
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Talks on future ties between Switzerland and the European Union have once again hit a dead end, after key meeting fails to end a negotiation impasse.
German minister Michael Roth, for example, told Swiss public television SRF that while relations with Switzerland were extremely important, “whoever wants to benefit from the single market must also play by its rules”.
French minister Clément Beaune also spoke about the importance of “protecting the [EU] single market”. He said that while Europe was open for discussions, the ball was in the court of “our Swiss friends” to say whether and when the current draft deal can be signed.
Beaune said he couldn’t envisage any new option that breaks out of the framework already negotiated.
Cantonal input
Also on Tuesday, Switzerland’s 26 cantons, through the voice of the Conference of Cantonal governments, added their position to the EU debate with a statement that warned against signing off on the framework deal “at any price”.
The body, which represents the position of Switzerland’s (largely autonomous) regions, said that the three sticking points in the deal – state aid, citizenship, and labour market access rules – should be resolved in Switzerland’s interest.
Switzerland has already made “important concessions” in these areas, the cantons said.
And yet, they said, summing things up nicely, the positions of the EU and Switzerland on these areas seem quite far apart.
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Swiss blame EU for impasse on framework deal
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The Swiss government says it will not agree an overarching accord with the European Union if Brussels is not willing to compromise on open issues.
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US-EU trade dispute will have no impact on Switzerland, says Swiss president
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US ends funding for four Swiss-run children’s aid projects
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The United States has definitively ended its funding for four projects run by the children's aid organisation Terre des hommes.
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Poll finds most Swiss back framework deal with EU
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The survey conducted by the research institute gfs.bern found that 64% of 2,000 people questioned were in favour of a comprehensive deal with the EU. About a third were opposed (32%). “This shows the considerable potential of the institutional agreement at the ballot box, i.e. two thirds of voters,” says René Buholzer, director of the umbrella organisation…
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A framework deal between the EU and Switzerland to update bilateral agreements is in danger of failing after seven years of negotiations.
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