Negotiations with the EU: New, explosive demands on Switzerland are circulating Due to death threats: another concert in Mexican border town canceled

It took a long time, but now it is here: the official report from the EU Parliament on the relationship with Switzerland. In more than thirty pages, rapporteur Lukas Mandl, member of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), explained the various aspects of the bilateral construction. The report was adopted by a large majority at the plenary meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

He applied for the job at the time because outgoing Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described the failure to reach an agreement with Switzerland as one of his biggest failures in his farewell speech. So he wanted to contribute to the improvement, according to Mandl, who described himself as a ‘friend of Switzerland’ and clearly felt comfortable in the role of mediator.

Now, more than two years later, the 44-year-old must also have become somewhat disillusioned. Not only that the restart of negotiations after a long exploratory phase is still a long time coming. Also on the EU side it seems that people have increasingly lost interest in Switzerland. What is significant is the number of EU parliamentarians who were interested in the debate at all. Only a handful of EU representatives reached the plenary hall in Strasbourg on Tuesday evening for the debate, scheduled shortly after 8 p.m., between a debate on Kosovo and the EU’s relationship with Uzbekistan.

Hardly anything new in terms of content, but there are a few additional requirements

Among those who spoke there were always the same names, especially from the border areas of neighboring countries. There is the EU representative from South Baden, Andreas Schwab, now something of a Switzerland expert, who greeted the Federal Council with a sympathetic “Hopp Schwiiz!” encouraged courage.

The French MP from the Macron faction, Christophe Grudler, from Franche-Comté, who tried to convince the Swiss of the benefits of an energy agreement (probably not without ulterior motives for the French nuclear industry).

Austrian Social Democrat Andreas Schieder urged full freedom of movement while defending the strengthening of worker protections. And then there were a few scattered people like the Green Party and the German-Swiss dual national Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg from Stuttgart (“Switzerland-EU, the relationship status is complicated”) or the Lega MP Alessandro Panza, who represents the European Commission warned against “Paternalism” warned and affirmed Swiss sovereignty.

The report offers little news in terms of content. The EU Parliament urges the Federal Council to act hastily, especially in view of the EU elections in spring 2024. It considers the relationship as “unbalanced” and the model of individual bilateral agreements as outdated. Apart from nuances, it fully supports the EU Commission: in addition to the dynamic adoption of the law, compliance with the Posting Act in the field of worker protection (accompanying measures), the EU Parliament also sees a binding role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . ) as indispensable in resolving disputes.

New requirements

But there are also new requirements that have nothing to do with the institutional relationship. EU parliamentarians are calling for an end to the ban on arms re-exports to Ukraine, for Switzerland’s participation in the G7 countries’ so-called “Repo” task force to track Russian money and for the approval of EU weapons. sanctions against China for human rights violations.

The chapter on foreign and security policy was particularly important for rapporteur Lukas Mandl. He immediately put it at the beginning of the report, because he sees more room for constructive cooperation here. And he makes it clear: if Switzerland had not adopted sanctions against Russia from the start of the war of aggression, “I would have resigned from my role as chief negotiator,” the Austrian said. (bzbasel.ch)