Relationship complicated – EU and Switzerland: beyond – and yet there

Switzerland is considered a great role model for all EU opponents and EU skeptics. It is often claimed that the Swiss would show that they can do well without the European Union and that they do not have to bow to the dictates of Brussels. However, Switzerland is not as independent from the EU as is often assumed; the country is linked to the Union by more than a hundred bilateral agreements. Outside, but actually somewhere there.

Yet the relationship is complicated. The EU negotiated a framework agreement with Switzerland for seven years, but in 2021 the government in Bern broke off the talks. She feared that the EU had too much influence in Switzerland. The European Commission, in turn, insisted on concessions to participate in the internal market, which Switzerland did not want to do. As a result, the Swiss had to leave the EU research program Horizon Europe. The mood has been tense since then.

“Peacemaker” and “model country”
But that is going to change again. One step along this path is a report that will be voted on in the EU Parliament on Wednesday. ÖVP MEP Lukas Mandl is primarily responsible for the document; he calls on the Commission to give up its “tunnel vision”, because Switzerland is a “model country”, a “valuable part of the European family” and a “peacemaker”.

One of the most important open questions is the cross-border labor market. A reduction in bureaucracy should make life easier for Austrians at the border. Another sensitive point is the role of the European Court of Justice. The EU calls for recognition of the Court; many Swiss politicians see this as a loss of sovereignty.

For Mandl, the report is a clear call for both parties to quickly achieve a result in the form of a total package.