Brussels, 13/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Launched by the Swiss UDC Party and to be put to the popular vote on 9 February of this year, the initiative to lay down annual immigration quotas in Switzerland, which will also affect immigration from the EU, has not won the electorate over a month ahead of the vote, according to the Swiss media. According to the latest opinion poll on 10 January, just 37% of respondents said that they were in favour of this limitation and 55% oppose the move, which its originators described as being "against mass immigration".
Swiss economic circles stood together on Monday 6 January in a joint appeal to the public to vote against the UDC bill. Twelve employers' organisations have also spoken out against the initiative, which they said "creates problems without putting forward any solutions".
The Swiss Federal Council "rejects" the 'against mass immigration' initiative, which will be put to referendum on 9 February 2014. The initiative calls for upper limits to be laid down for all foreigners, "which would go against the current admission system and would complicate the recruitment of the foreign labour force we need for our economy", the Federal Council has explained. In addition, if the bill succeeded it would "call bilateral agreements into question and therefore compromise Switzerland's relations with the European Union". Immigration makes a sizeable contribution to Switzerland's wealth.
The 'against mass immigration' initiative calls for residence permits for all foreigners to be subject to maximum numbers. However, quotas of this kind would "restrict the margin for manoeuvre of companies established in Switzerland. Today, immigration is determined first and foremost by the economic situation of Switzerland, and by businesses' demand for qualified workforce", the Federal Council explained.
Under its agreements on the free movement of European workers which it negotiated with the EU, Switzerland may reintroduce quotas for European workers up to June 2014, for both long-term and short-term work permits. The most recent restrictions concerning long-term permits were set in place in April 2013. After June 2014, however, the freedom of movement of European workers will be total and Switzerland will theoretically no longer be able to apply quotas of this kind. In the event of a positive vote in the referendum of 9 February, this could create a situation which is in breach of these agreements, which date from 2002.
The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the EU ambassador to Berne, Richard Jones, have said on several occasions that a victory for the initiative would violate the principle of the free movement of people and therefore the agreement concluded by Switzerland in the EU in 1999 in this field.
However, as bilateral agreements are legally connected to each other ('guillotine clause'), repealing the agreement on the freedom of movement could also have consequences for the other bilateral agreements.
In theory, the Commission could call on the Council to take position on ending six other agreements concluded in 1999 (air and land transport, agriculture, public procurement, research and technical barriers to trade). In practice, however, it is highly unlikely that the EU would adopt such an extreme position. Irrespective of whether the decision would have to be made either unanimously or by qualified majority (lawyers' opinions differ on the procedure which would apply), it seems very hard to imagine the Council managing to agree on ending the seven agreements. It is worth noting that a period of three years has been provided between the adoption of the initiative and its transposition into Swiss law.
The EU is Switzerland's number-one trade partner: two thirds of Swiss external trade (56% of exports and 75% of imports) involves the member states of the EU. (SP/LC/transl.fl)