Brussels, 09/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the beginning of next week, the Council of the EU is expected to remind Switzerland that the principle of free movement remains non-negotiable and that Switzerland is expected to keep its commitments in accordance with its agreement with the EU on the free movement of European workers, which has been in force since 2002.
These are the conclusions adopted on 4 December by the Council's European Free Trade Association (EFTA) committee in a twice yearly report. They will be discussed on Wednesday 10 December by the committee of permanent representatives to the EU (Coreper) and are expected to be adopted by the Council on 16 December. While these conclusions do not bring anything new, they are likely to come into play in January when the Swiss government is due to present its draft legislation in response to the referendum back on 9 February. Swiss citizens called on their authorities in this referendum to reduce immigration from workers particularly coming from the EU and to establish quotas on this. Their referendum vote triggered a crisis in the EU as free movement does not chime with quotas. The EU decided to freeze certain areas of cooperation - some of which have now been partially relaunched, as is the case for the Horizon 2020 programme on research.
According to these draft conclusions, which can be amended by the EU ambassadors, the EU hails the fact that on 30 November the Swiss rejected a still stricter limit on immigration during the Ecopop initiative. The member states nevertheless reiterate the EU's refusal to renegotiate the free movement agreement and they back the European Commission's decision on this (formulated in Catherine Ashton's letter of 25 July 2014). They again recall the threats to Bern's participation in certain acquis, like Schengen or the Dublin system or the bilateral agreements, if Switzerland should set the results of the 9 February referendum to music. The EU thus calls on Switzerland “to respect its obligations in the area of free movement and in the other agreements”. European citizens living and working on Swiss soil should continue to enjoy their rights “without any restriction”, the draft states, and “with the guarantee that the result of the referendum will have no negative impact on them”. Should these rights be breached, the EU would have reason to consider breaking off the ongoing negotiations on the institutional agreement or the negotiations on the internal market. (SP)