Outgoing Swiss-EU negotiator sees reasons to be cheerful

Gaetan Bally/Keystone

State Secretary Livia Leu, Switzerland’s top negotiator with the European Union, has given a positive assessment of the state of relations with Brussels.

“We are now in a different, better position than we were three years ago,” says Leu, who is to be replaced by Swiss diplomat Alexandre Fasel on September 1.

In June the Swiss government announced a new strategy for stabilising relations with the EU, which have hit a rocky patch in the last two years. It finally defined the parameters of a mandate for negotiations with the EU. It also intends to prepare for the adoption of a mandate by the end of the year. This followed ten rounds of exploratory talks between Leu and her EU negotiating partner Juraj Nociar, as well as 30 meetings at the technical level.

“This is a very important step towards negotiations,” Leu told the Le Temps newspaper and German-language Tamedia media on Saturday in an interview.

Electricity to free movement

For its new strategy, Switzerland has targeted market access to electricity supply and food safety to complement existing deals in air transport, land transport, technical barriers to trade, agriculture and the free movement of people.

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The Federal Council also wants enhanced cooperation in the health sector and a rapid return to the top tier of the EU’s Horizon Europe and Erasmus research and educational programmes. Switzerland also wants to establish a system of settling disputes that is acceptable to both parties.

The aim is to integrate these aims into a new negotiating mandate.

Switzerland and Brussels have been at odds over an agreement to consolidate relations following the Swiss government’s decision in May 2021 to abandon years of talks with the EU on an umbrella accord to complement the more than 120 bilateral agreements.

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At the time the government cited a lack of agreement on salary protection, state aid rules, and the access of EU citizens to Swiss social security benefits. Since then, talks have been ongoing to rebuild ties.

‘Cantons no longer reticent’

In Switzerland the cantons are no longer as reticent as they once were, and the business lobby group economiesuisse is backing the move, she added. “The unions are perhaps a little more vocal with their demands – that’s their job – but things have moved on,” she added.

“We have been able to lay the foundations for a future negotiating package that goes beyond institutional issues and also enables us to develop the bilateral track.”

The Swiss government has yet to reveal any of the key elements of its negotiating mandate. This is normal, says Leu. “The EU always publishes its negotiating mandates. As a small negotiating partner, we don’t do that. We would undermine our own position if we showed from the outset where we could be flexible,” she says.

Planned talks between Switzerland and the European Union to rebuild ties have been postponed until the end of October after the federal elections at the request of the Swiss government.

Leu is set to become Swiss ambassador to Germany from November 1. She will be replaced by Fasel, who serves as the Special Representative for Science Diplomacy in international Geneva. He has previously held the role of Swiss ambassador to the United Kingdom.