The European Commission took stock of the state of relations with Switzerland on Tuesday 25 June as part of an EFTA group, while the equivalence for the Swiss scholarship granted in December will expire on 30 June. It confirmed that, without change or progress from Berne by the end of the week, it would not renew this equivalence, thus allowing the current one to simply expire, said one source.
This decision would be a first between the two partners and would consist in withdrawing the recognition decision under which Swiss equity trading platforms have a similar regulation to that of the EU. For the parties concerned, this would mean more complications and obstacles for trading shares listed on the Swiss stock exchange. Switzerland has already announced protection measures on 24 June. At Luxembourg's request, the ambassadors could in any case have a discussion on the subject on Wednesday morning, as an item has been placed on the agenda of the Committee of Permanent Representatives.
The Grand Duchy wants to discuss the future of bilateral relations more generally, while some fear a tightening and deplore a ‘Brexit’ effect justifying firmness towards Switzerland. For the Commission, it is because "there has been nothing new" since the Federal Council's announcements on 7 June that this decision not to extend the equivalence was taken, according to a source in the institution.
On 7 June, Berne had indeed signalled a certain willingness to sign the famous institutional framework agreement discussed for years, but had asked for clarifications on state aid, the free movement of persons and measures to protect Swiss wages. On 18 June, however, the Commission reported that it had not been able to work with the Swiss teams on these clarifications due to the lack of a mandate to do so (see EUROPE 12277/10).
On the side of the Member States, the reactions of the most interested countries, namely the countries bordering Switzerland, France, Italy and Germany, are mixed, with Paris more officially supporting the Commission's action. "But the leaders of these countries could have taken advantage of the European Summit to express their reticence and they did not", a diplomatic source said on Monday. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)