Brussels, 26/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - 56% of the Swiss electorate voted on Sunday 25 September in favour of extending the EU/Swiss agreement on free movement of workers, to the ten new Member States of the European Union. José Manuel Barroso the president of the European Commission congratulated the Swiss people on Sunday even for having made “the decision to extend the benefits of free movement of people to all European Union nationals…This vote demonstrates that Switzerland and the EU are working together successfully to promote integration of our people and economies and to strengthen cohesion in Europe”.
In the same evening, Samuel Schmid, president of Switzerland declared, “today's vote is of great importance, notably for economic growth and protection of workers. The “yes” vote reinforces Switzerland as an economic pole. Switzerland is in fact the tributary of stable relations with the enlarged EU in general and an important marked for recruiting skilled labour in particular”.
As a Czech, Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities on Monday welcomed “with pleasure” when addressing the press, the positive election outcome. He welcomed this decision which “put the Swiss population on the same level” adding, that they “had examined all the arguments”. Asked about the fears on wage pressure and working conditions in Switzerland, the Commissioner said that “free movement of workers is not a danger to the European social model” and that all the European directives had been elaborated to “avoid social dumping”. He pointed out that when the figures had been examined for immigration, they would be able to see that social dumping was insignificant an concluded that twelve out of fifteen of the older Member States (with the exception of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden) were applying restrictions to free movement of workers from the new Member States and at the beginning of 2006 had to indicate whether they wanted to keep them. (EUROPE 9029 on the subject of Spidla's declaration following the first meeting of the high level group on the free movement of workers).
Dianna Wallis MEP (British Liberal) asked whether they needed to relaunch the debate on a possible Swiss accession to the European Union, which she would support. In a press release she explained that this result “marks a significant watershed in Swiss-EU relations” and that “a fundamental think is needed o the Swiss side” on the future of Swiss relations with the European Union.
According to Samuel Schmid, the 26 September referendum was the second vote this year on a European project and that the vote in favour meant that voters had again confirmed the bilateral road for Switzerland as well as having consolidating good relations with the country and the enlarged EU. This was a reference to the June referendum in which the Swiss accepted by 54.6% their country's participation in Schengen and the Dublin agreements (EUROPE 8926).
Asked on Monday about opportunities to pursue the diplomatic route, Spidla simply indicated that this was a “purely Swiss issue” and that the response had to be reserved until the future. He also said that initially they would have to get the bilateral agreements implemented. The Commissioner concluded that Europe did not want to impose accession and that this had never been the case.