Amherd and von der Leyen discuss ongoing Swiss-EU negotiations
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Amherd and von der Leyen discuss ongoing Swiss-EU negotiations
Swiss President Viola Amherd and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have met and talked about the ongoing negotiations between Bern and Brussels.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Amherd spricht mit von der Leyen über die laufenden Verhandlungen
Original
Amherd also used the meeting on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Budapest on Thursday for further bilateral talks.
“The Commission is still interested in concluding the talks by the end of this year,” Amherd told Swiss journalists in Budapest. Switzerland is interested in moving forward, but the result must also be right, she said.
“We did not negotiate, the chief negotiators do that,” Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, She did not elaborate on the three contentious issues of the free movement of people, the cohesion payment and the electricity agreement. She merely said that the government had discussed a mechanism for cohesion payments on Wednesday, but without any concrete figures.
Amherd met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for a “handshake”, as she put it. She had already met him in the summer on the Bürgenstock in Switzerland and in Blenheim, UK, at the previous summit of the EPC. It is always good to maintain such contacts, she said.
Amherd also spoke to the president of Cyprus. They discussed the conflict on the island. In this context, Switzerland was prepared to offer to host talks, Amherd said. In return, the Cypriot president said that Cyprus would support Switzerland in Europe when it takes over the rotating presidency of the EU in 2026.
Cyprus has been divided for 50 years. In the south of the island is the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, and in the north is Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey.
A further meeting also took place with the president of Kosovo, according to Amherd.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
This content was published on
One million francs, 34 million euros and around 830 kilos of gold: this is the fortune that two Swiss nationals are accused of having moved across borders for at least four years.
Girls in female-dominated classes earn more later on
This content was published on
At the age of 30, women from school classes with a 55% share of girls earn $350 more per year than women from classes with a 45% share of girls.
This content was published on
Geneva-based luxury goods group Richemont reported a downturn in performance for the first half of its 2024/25 financial year. Both sales and profit declined.
COP29: Swiss NGOs call for strong financial support
This content was published on
Ahead of COP29, Swiss NGOs call for wealthy nations to pay $1,000 billion a year to help other countries solve climate problems.
Real Swiss wages likely to rise in 2025, says UBS bank
This content was published on
Higher wages and falling inflation are likely to boost Swiss purchasing power, which will be dragged back by rising health premiums.
This content was published on
Switzerland has a new tectonic map at a scale of 1:500,000, containing updates to geometry, distribution and nomenclature of the tectonic units.
This content was published on
Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri, known for his artworks using leftover food with dirty cutlery and crockery, has passed away in Vienna at the age of 94.
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.