Swiss press for conclusion of EU accords

Ferrero-Waldner (left) supports Calmy-Rey's bid to wrap up talks on the bilateral accords Keystone

Austria is supporting Swiss efforts to conclude a second set of bilateral accords with the European Union by the end of the year.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austria’s foreign minister, told her Swiss counterpart, Micheline Calmy-Rey, that Vienna was in favour of the accords being treated as one package rather than separately.

The two ministers met in the Austrian capital on Thursday, the first stop of a five-day European tour by the Swiss foreign minister.

Switzerland is pressing European Union countries for an agreement on the accords before the end of the year.

Ferrero-Waldner said Austria supported Switzerland’s bid to wrap up negotiations on all ten agreements designed to strengthen ties between Bern and Brussels.

Ferrero-Waldner said Austria was in favour of “the most global solution possible” and not a piecemeal approach.

Calmy-Rey is due to press the same issue on Monday with her Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, when she travels to Rome, current holder of the EU presidency.

Key obstacle

Italy and Switzerland have clashed on a number of occasions over tax fraud – one of the key sticking points hindering progress on the second set of bilateral agreements.

Switzerland fears the article on combating tax fraud could threaten banking secrecy.

It is a major stumbling block to Switzerland joining the Schengen and Dublin agreements on crime and asylum.

The Swiss president, Pascal Couchepin, gained assurances from the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in July that progress would be made.

Calmy-Rey is due to travel to Berlin and Paris next month to try to move the negotiations along.

Bern has been negotiating with the EU to become an associate member to both treaties since July 2002.

Calmy-Rey arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina later on Thursday where she visited a centre in Tuzla for women and children traumatised by the bloody ethnic conflict during 1992-1995.

The Swiss foreign minister is also due to travel to Serbia and Montenegro later this week as part of her tour of central and southern Europe.

The Balkan region is a focus of Swiss development aid, and Switzerland is contributing to an international peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

swissinfo with agencies

EU

Switzerland and the European Union are negotiating a second set of bilateral agreements.

The discussions centre around ten dossiers, some of which were not finalised in the first set which came into effect in July 2002.

Switzerland is keen to finalise negotiations on the latest package by the end of the year.

Agreement on tax fraud is one of the major stumbling blocks towards wrapping up negotiations.