28/11/2024 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission still hopes to conclude a new partnership with Switzerland in 2024. While the meeting between Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis in Bern (Switzerland) on the evening of Wednesday 27 November was “extremely useful”, “more work remains to be done”, particularly on the major outstanding issues of the future agreement on electricity, the Swiss contribution to cohesion and the free movement of workers, the Commission said on 28 November. The two men noted that negotiations were well advanced in most areas of the package. They discussed the issues still outstanding and reaffirmed their commitment to bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion on a balanced package of solutions, the Swiss government announced. In March, the EU and Switzerland relaunched negotiations to modernise and design a new package of bilateral agreements. (SP)