Top Swiss official sees ‘good’ chances of new agreement with EU

Swiss Secretary of State Alexandre Fasel addressed the media in Bern on Wednesday to mark 100 days in his new role as Swiss-EU negotiator. © Keystone / Peter Schneider

The chances of reaching an agreement on a new bilateral package with Brussels are "real and good", according to Alexandre Fasel, Switzerland's state secretary in charge of the European Union dossier.

The success of negotiations in Switzerland between the social partners will be decisive for the success of the Swiss-EU dossier, he noted.

Switzerland will only achieve success on foreign policy when it can reach agreement internally, said Fasel, who was appointed on September 1 to take over from Livia Leu.

He addressed the media in Bern the same day the European Commission adopted a draft mandate signalling its readiness to open negotiations with Switzerland on future cooperation and a series of agreements. The Federal Council took this step last Friday, paving the way for new negotiations with Brussels aimed at stabilising and developing the bilateral path with the EU.

+ European Commission gives greenlight to fresh Swiss-EU negotiations

The aim is to launch negotiations with Brussels on the new package at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of 2024, said Fasel. He will play a coordinating role between the negotiations with Brussels and the discussions at Swiss domestic policy level.

+ Switzerland sets out priorities for fresh EU negotiations

Fasel said the aim is to present the deal to parliament for ratification at the same time with both parts. The internal discussions will focus on issues such as wage protection. Left-wing parties and the unions are calling for guarantees to avoid the risks of salaries being undercut. “The two aspects are inter-related,” said the state secretary.

It is important that we begin negotiations with the current European Commission, he added. In this way talks can continue independently from the new executive that emerges from elections in Brussels in June 2024.

+ Switzerland’s government tries to head off criticism of EU talks

The diplomat did not want to make any predictions about the duration of the future negotiations, as there are too many factors involved.

Swiss and European diplomats held a series of exploratory talks between April 2022 and October 2023. The discussions led to the definition of “landing zones” – a set of compromises that are mutually acceptable to both sides – which were set out in a joint declaration. This document will serve as a basis for future negotiations between Bern and Brussels.

If Switzerland decides to modify these “landing zones”, Fasel said the European Commission would do the same. “We would then find ourselves in a completely different negotiation,” he warned.

But the Swiss official stressed the positive results of the 18-month-long exploratory talks, which offer a basis for developing Switzerland’s participation in the EU’s internal market. Switzerland will also be able to reintegrate certain European programmes, such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus.

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