Brussels, 18/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Swiss referendum of 9 February, resulting in a call to limit immigration from the EU, claimed another victim on Tuesday 18 February when the European Commission announced that it would not be continuing its negotiations with Switzerland on the Creative Europe programme.
The Commission's new Creative Europe programme provides support for European culture, cinema, television, music, literature, performing arts, heritage and related areas. It has a budget of €1.46 billion for the next seven years (2014-2020) - 9% more than the previous budget.
European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou confirmed on Monday that Creative Europe's fate was going the same way as that of the Erasmus and Horizon 2020 programmes - which were also suspended while waiting for Switzerland to “sign the memorandum with Croatia”. This memorandum extends to citizens of Croatia the free movement of Europeans in Switzerland. However, given the 9 February referendum result, the Swiss government is not now able to sign this memorandum.
On Monday, an observer stated that the Commission's response was a little “out of proportion” and even rather risky. Displaying a firm attitude to Switzerland, the Commission is playing “domestic politics”, especially with countries that have ambitions for independence or even with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who has floated the idea of quotas for European migrants. However, in the view of our source, the Commission's attitude is questionable because it also sends the message that the Commission “does not want to listen to what the citizens say”.
The president of the Swiss Confederation, Didier Burkhalter, is due to visit Paris and Berlin this week to discuss the consequences of the Swiss referendum. On Thursday 20 February, a meeting is scheduled between the Swiss secretary of state for foreign affairs, Yves Rossier, and the director general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), David O'Sullivan. A Coreper meeting (committee of permanent representatives of the EU member states) could be held on Thursday afternoon and could return to the mandate of the institutional agreement - an issue that was held over from the agenda on 13 February.
Merkel wants to take time for discussion. On Tuesday 18 February, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel stated at a press conference in Berlin with the Swiss president that “it is very important to observe that there is a three-year transition phase [Ed: before implementing new constitutional arrangements on immigration in Switzerland] so we have time to conduct the necessary discussions. I am in favour of a reasonable solution and Germany will be committed to this”. “At the end of these three years, we must decide what consequences this involves, but it is not necessary to draw all the conclusions right now, in other words right at the beginning of the process”, she said. Burkhalter insisted on the fact that a decision has been taken “democratically in Switzerland and this decision is a constitutional mandate. It is not yet an enforceable law. Nothing has changed since 9 February.” He believes “that it is possible to discuss in Europe a possible adjustment of the agreements on the freedom of movement, alongside what we are doing in terms of legislation”. (SP/LC/transl.fl)