Swiss President Ignazio Cassis on Sunday called for
"calm"
and
"creativity"
to improve Switzerland's relations with the European Union.
Ties between Brussels and Bern have been strained since non-EU member Switzerland suddenly decided in May 2021 to end years of talks for a broad cooperation agreement with the bloc. States.
Read alsoEU: negotiations between Europe and Switzerland blocked
"With the EU, Switzerland must get out of purely technical and institutional issues
," said Ignazio Cassis to the newspaper
SonntagsZeitung
("Sunday newspaper", in French, Ed.).
"It is only when we have enriched the content, when politics and society recognize the material gains that Switzerland can expect, that an institutional rapprochement will be accepted
", hammered the Swiss president. The situation requires
“a little calm and creativity
,” he said.
Switzerland, a landlocked country, is surrounded by the EU, which is its main economic partner.
Years of talks to conclude a framework agreement have reached an impasse, the European Union having refused to give in to Berne's demands to exclude key questions relating to state aid, the protection of wages and freedom of movement.
Relations between the EU and Switzerland are currently governed by a set of disparate agreements, while for more than ten years there have been discussions for a comprehensive agreement which would have harmonized the legal framework governing these links.
This agreement would also have established a dispute settlement mechanism.
But Switzerland is reluctant to respond to EU demands for budgetary contributions and alignment with EU rules as a price to pay to retain its free access to the EU market.
According to Ignazio Cassis, Switzerland should not only consider the EU's internal market, but should also cooperate in areas such as health, research and culture.
He added that the Swiss government was in the process of defining the framework for a possible package of agreements with Brussels or at least an agenda for the discussions.
Switzerland is the European Union's fourth largest trading partner and 1.4 million EU citizens live in this country of 8.6 million inhabitants.
"Unstable relations are not a long-term solution, neither for us nor for the EU"
, continued Ignazio Cassis.
He believes that Switzerland should get closer to Brussels for geopolitical reasons, in a tripolar world made up of the United States, Russia with China and the EU as a third power.
“The pressure on Switzerland to establish closer ties with Europe will increase.
Because the EU is closest to us economically, ideologically and socially
,” he said.
However, he thinks his country should resist pressure from Brussels for closer political relations.
“We cannot simply abandon our principles,
take wage protection and immigration lightly and thus jeopardize social peace,”
he stressed.