Brussels, 01/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - Despite the EU's flat rejection of Switzerland's request to renegotiate the free movement agreement, Switzerland wants to continue discussing immigration with the EU, said President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter, as reported by French news agency AFP. The letter sent to the Swiss government by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton on Friday 25 July rejects Bern's request to negotiate the 2002 agreement - a request that was made following the Swiss referendum on 9 February which called for the reintroduction of quotas for foreign workers in 2017 - but the letter raises the possibility of discussing the modalities of free movement.
Questioned by French-speaking Swiss television on Switzerland's national day on 1 August, Burkhalter stated that Ashton's letter “says that the principle of free movement cannot be negotiated” but that “its modalities” can be discussed. “In that case, then, we will discuss the modalities”, Burkhalter stated, and he said once again that both sides - Switzerland and the EU - had an interest in finding a solution. “We are the second largest investor in the EU. Switzerland is an island of stability and we are an economic and financial power”, he added.
Burkhalter also confirmed that the Swiss would be called on to vote again on the EU at the end of 2016 or in early 2017 - with the Swiss having to say what type of bilateral relations they want to have with the EU. This vote is also perceived as a way of deciding again on the limiting immigration, perhaps reversing the outcome of the first vote. (SP)