On Monday 5 March, the Swiss Federal Council announced its intention to conclude an institutional framework agreement with the European Union (which has been pending since 2013) and unveiled its ambition to obtain new EU market access in exchange, through an agreement on electricity.
This announcement was made by Swiss Federal Councillor for International Affairs Ignazio Cassis and comes after several months of prevarication on the Swiss side and a hardening of tone on the European side since Juncker's visit to Bern on 23 November (see EUROPE 11911 and 11952). Juncker had urged Switzerland to finalise this agreement in 2018, which is what Cassis was engaged in on Monday in Bern.
Switzerland supports the principle of an arbitration court competent to settle disputes stemming from implementation of the future institutional framework agreement, and would accept the role and interpretation of the EU Court of Justice to a lesser extent when European law is concerned. The court would not, however, have any role when it is a case of sui generis right.
Another challenge in the future negotiations is the issue of settling state aid, which the Commission also wants to settle, in principle and in detail, in this institutional framework agreement. Switzerland has authorised the relevant departments to work together with the cantons to develop "a 'two-pronged' solution that provides for autonomous supervisory bodies for both Switzerland and the EU. The material provisions can only be negotiated in the specific framework of an agreement on Switzerland's participation in the EU's electricity market", the Swiss government states in a press release.
Bern would thus like this framework agreement only to make a reference to rules on state aid determined with precision as part of the electricity agreement. And Switzerland does not want the European directive on citizenship or the measures accompanying the free movement of people to enter into the scope of this framework agreement.
Despite these differences, the European Commission has noted a real resolve to progress on the Swiss side, while reiterating its red lines: - no cherry-picking without supporting all the requirements of this, and; - concluding the institutional framework agreement before the new market agreement. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)