Listening: ‘Europe’ initiative halts signature collection to focus on Swiss-EU treaty
The organisers of the “Europe” initiative, which started in April 2024, announced on Wednesday that they will stop collecting signatures. Instead, they plan to focus on getting the set of agreements “Bilaterals III” ratified.
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Keystone-SDA
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Initiative “Europe”: récolte de signatures stoppée
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The initiative aimed to anchor Swiss relations with the European Union (EU) in the Federal Constitution. According to the initiators, the outcome of the Swiss government’s negotiations meets the initiative’s “essential objectives” and provides “a solid foundation for ensuring the long-term strengthening of bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU,” they wrote in a press release.
They added that the main goal of the initiative is now “within reach” thanks to the “Bilaterals III” treaty package. This is why the initiators will do everything they can to see it through, even though “achieving this won’t be easy, despite “Bilaterals III” being clearly positive for Switzerland,” they added.
The “Europe” initiative, launched in April 2024 by 11 organisations including Operation Libero and the Green Party, has kept the number of signatures collected so far under wraps, according to the Keystone-SDA news agency.
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