Brussels, 26/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - MEPs and the European Commission took a hard line in Strasbourg on Wednesday 26 February, rejecting the Swiss referendum decision on 9 February 2014 that immigration from the EU be restricted.
Admitting that the situation was complex and the Swiss referendum vote must be respected (50.3% voted in favour of restricting immigration), Greece's Minister for European Affairs Dimitris Kourkoulas and European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor urged the country to respect the agreements signed with the EU, like the 2002 deal on the free movement of European workers and the agreement to extend the EU deal to Croatians.
Andor said the two sides were working to ensure existing measures were respected - because a deal's a deal. He urged Switzerland not to pick and choose the best bits of the agreements with the EU, taking advantage of the single market without providing reciprocal free movement for EU passport-holders. The Commission was heckled by Mario Borghezio (EFD, Italy), who waved a Swiss flag and accused him of ignoring democracy.
You can't have your cake and eat it, warned the co-leader of the Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, adding that the 9 February vote meant that all the previous EU-Switzerland deals no longer applied and the situation was back to how it had been before the agreements were signed back in 1999. He said the Swiss were free to vote how they liked, but they were also free to accept the consequences. Cohn-Bendit said that it was for Switzerland to find solutions, not the EU, and that given the close links between the two economies, the Swiss would be coming to the EU on bended knee.
Pat the Cope Gallagher (ALDE, Ireland) said he was extremely disappointed with the vote. He said the situation was very complex and delicate, and he urged member states to grant a negotiating mandate to enable the EU to negotiate a new institutional agreement with Switzerland to replace the existing sector-specific deals. The Commission has already suspended all the talks on Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020, and favours Gallagher's idea.
Institutional mandate still awaited. For a time the mandate featured on the agenda of the Coreper (committee of the member states' permanent representatives to the EU) meeting of 26 February but, ultimately, it was once again held back. “The Council felt that it was still a little early to come to any decision but the matter will not be forgotten”, according to one source. The idea of the member states, many of which support the mandate, is to adopt it along with a statement stipulating that the member states are well aware of the difficulty of the situation created on 9 February. The outcome of the informal contact continuing between the Commission and Bern must also be awaited.
On Monday 3 March, the Swiss minister with responsibility for matters relating to freedom of movement, Simonetta Sommaruga, will be in Brussels to apprise the joint committee of justice and home affairs ministers of the consequences of the referendum.
Solution sought for Croatia. The Swiss government has said that it was trying to find a solution with regard to Croatia before the end of March. Some suggest that the protocol on Croatia will be applied but not signed, as signature was made impossible by the outcome of the referendum. Switzerland would thus abide by the provisions of the protocol, which provides for quotas for Croatian workers, but would not sign it. It would then be for the EU to say whether or not it was prepared to accept this pragmatic solution which would meet the same objective - that of not discriminating against Croatian citizens. (SP)