Brussels, 09/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 8 February, Swiss voters elected to extend the agreement allowing European Union nationals to work on the territory of the Swiss Confederation and to extend it to Romania and Bulgaria. The official results show that 59.6% voted "yes" in the referendum, with 40.4% of the turnout voting "no". Immediately after the results were announced, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, telephoned the president of the Swiss Confederation, Hans-Rudolf Merz, to congratulate him on the "excellent results" of the referendum, Mr Barroso announced in a press release. "I asked the federal president to pass on these congratulations to the people of Switzerland", he added, reiterating that this agreement is a "key agreement" for relations between the EU and Switzerland. "The positive support of the Swiss people paves the way to reinforce the existing fabric of our relations in fields of mutual interest. I am confident that we will continue to intensify our excellent relationship", said Mr Barroso. Twenty-two Swiss cantons returned positive votes, with only the voters of three German-speaking cantons and the Italian-speaking Tessin voting against. The centrist Democratic Union party (UDC), a populist party which rallied behind the "no" camp, has quite simply been given a slap in the face, several Swiss daily newspapers reported on Monday. Freedom of movement, which has been in force since 2002, has allowed some 200,000 citizens of the (25) countries of the EU to work in Switzerland. This freedom of movement agreement was linked to six other bilateral agreements focusing on trade. The worst has been avoided, because if the first had been rejected in a referendum, it would have that the effect of cancelling all of the others, in virtue of the so-called "guillotine" clause (EUROPE 9835). “After the vote, I thanked our Swiss friends", said the vice -president of the European Commission, Jacques Barrot, on Monday 9 February, speaking on French-language Swiss radio. We now need a bit of "dynamism" in bilateral relations with Switzerland and to try to organise all this within a "framework agreement" to allow greater clarity and visibility in the partnership between the EU and Switzerland, he said. Mr Barrot spoke of the need to improve the application of the agreements in place. "Most importantly of all, we must make sure that there are no discussions when it comes to applying them", he said, suggesting that an ad hoc body could be set up to this end. The framework agreement is not a slogan of the European Commission, he said. But it is a midway point between that accession and the strategy in force. When will Switzerland join the EU: in 2020, 2030 or 2050? "History moves faster than you think", said the commissioner. (B.C./transl.fl)