Brussels, 16/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Switzerland can henceforth officially reintroduce quotas for permits to stay for over one year issued to the nationals of 17 EU member states (the 15 older states plus Malta and Cyprus), several Swiss media reported on Thursday 16 May.
For the past year, the clause has already applied to nationals of Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The threshold wanted by the Federal Council for activating the safeguard clause was reached on Tuesday, the Swiss Federal Migration Office said. Media reports state that the limit of 56,268 permits B (long duration) has now been crossed. The new permits will therefore be restricted to 53,700 from 1 June until 31 May 2014. This figure corresponds to the average number of authorisations delivered over the last three years, plus 5%., the media says. Switzerland must not, however, limit short duration permits to stay, of one year at most, as the threshold for activating the safeguard clause for this kind of permit (permit L) has not been reached.
On 24 April last, the Swiss Federal Council had announced its intention to activate the safeguard clause foreseen in the agreement on free movement with the EU in force since 2002. The Commission had protested against this measure as, the Commission states, it would be detrimental to free movement between the two blocs. Switzerland considers that the impact of the measure will be very limited and that it is necessary to act in order to meet the fears of its own population, expressing concern, inter alia, about downward pressure on salaries. (SP/transl.jl)