Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, said on Thursday that Switzerland's decision to impose quotas on workers from the EU, as announced on Wednesday 24 April, will be examined by member states and the Swiss authorities at the next joint committee meeting, in an effort to see what sort of response can be made to it. On Wednesday evening, Ashton said that she regretted the decision made by the Swiss Federal Council and judged it “contrary” to the 2002 agreements on free movement signed by Switzerland and the EU. According to this text, although Switzerland can unilaterally reintroduce quotas on the number of workers (for long-term work permits longer than five years and for permits of less than a year) it, nevertheless, must respect certain parameters and, thus far, that condition has not been met. The Commission explained that it bases its analysis on figures from the past ten months and, though there are still two months that need to be taken into account (April and May), the ceiling upon which this safeguard clause can be activated has not yet been reached. Ashton also criticised the distinction made by Switzerland between EU-8 countries (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, which have already been subject to quotas since May 2012) and EU-17 countries that are affected by these same quotas, with Bulgaria and Romania still subject to a regime specific to themselves. Kocijancic went on to say that, from the EU's point of view, the 2002 agreement allows for restrictions on the basis of figures from the 25 member states as a whole and this calculation does not appear to have been made by the Swiss authorities. Ashton's services also consider that into addition to the criteria illustrated here, this “infringement” to the principle of free movement of workers between the two parties is deplorable. On Wednesday, the Swiss authorities decided to activate a safeguard clause after observing an increase in the number of EU workers arriving in the country, a figure that is estimated to be around 60,000 to 80,000 a year. The Swiss Federal Council says that this rise is difficult to manage both economically and socially. (SP/transl.fl)