At the ‘General Affairs’ Council in Brussels on Tuesday 17 December, the Member States’ European Affairs ministers were briefed on progress in the European Union’s negotiations with Switzerland to finalise a new set of bilateral agreements.
Informed of the progress of the talks by the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Maroš Šefčovič, the ministers confirmed their support for the mandate given to the Commission and its efforts to reach a political agreement before the end of the year, commented the Hungarian Minister for European Affairs, János Bóka, after the meeting.
However, they have not yet been able to celebrate the end of the negotiations, as some sources had predicted at the end of last week.
The Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, spoke of an agreement “within the next few days” and maintained that technical and political discussions were “ongoing”.
On X, Maroš Šefčovič mentioned only “a few issues remain open” to reach the “finish line”. This is expected to be discussed by the Swiss Federal Council on 20 December.
After agreeing in 2023 on a roadmap and a Memorandum of Understanding defining the potential areas of agreement, the Commission and Switzerland began negotiations in spring 2024.
The new package includes ten agreements covering air and land transport, trade in agricultural products, health and electricity. The latest discussions will focus solely on the amount of the regular cohesion contribution due from Switzerland.
“The discussions took place in a very positive atmosphere”, according to one source. “We have saluted the important work led by the Commission in the past months and the last 10 years. Now that an agreement is in sight, we hope that Switzerland will be ready to go ahead. We believe to have reached what is a very delicate balance, and should be appreciated as such by all parties”.
On their arrival in Brussels, a number of ministers were delighted that the talks were progressing well.
German Secretary of State Anna Lührmann said she was “very optimistic about the negotiations with Switzerland. They are really in the home stretch and we think they can still be concluded this year. There are still other discussions with Switzerland, particularly on the financial aspects of the agreements, but negotiations are well under way”.
The Austrian Minister for European Affairs, Karoline Edtstadler, also said that she “really hoped” that an agreement would be reached this week.
“As Austrians, we are of course traditionally not only close and neighbours, as it were, but we also have a good and close relationship with Switzerland. Just think of the many Austrian students in Switzerland, for whom we have always said that there should be equal treatment. We have great excellence in Switzerland, which we also need for the future EU, for the European area as a whole, and that’s why I can only express my hope that we really are ready for this institutional framework agreement to be decided again this year”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)