Federal Council to open Swiss-EU relations negotiations in March

Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis (right) welcomes European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders during a visit in Bern on Thursday, March 7, 2024. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / PETER SCHNEIDER

The Federal Council wants to negotiate with Brussels on Switzerland's future relations with the European Union. On Friday it adopted the definitive mandate for these negotiations, which will begin as soon as the European Commission has also adopted its mandate.

According to the foreign ministry, this should occur before the end of March. On the Swiss side, chief negotiator Patric Franzen, deputy state secretary of the foreign ministry, is responsible for the overall management of the negotiations. The individual elements of the negotiating package are to be negotiated in parallel.

In the consultations on the negotiating mandate, a large majority of those consulted were in favour of the package approach to the negotiations, the foreign ministry said. The Federal Council has adopted most of the recommendations from the consultations and adapted its draft mandate from December.

However, the government has not incorporated requests for changes in the area of electricity. The proposed electricity agreement was criticised in various ways during the consultations. The Federal Council cites the exclusion of electricity production from the scope of the agreement and the absence of measures to liberalise the market.

In the electricity agreement, the Federal Council wants to give consumers the choice of remaining in regulated basic supply with regulated prices. It also wants to retain the most important state subsidies for electricity production, especially from renewable energies.

With regard to wage protection, the Federal Council wants to guarantee wages and working conditions. And in terms of regulation of costs, it is seeking a solution that guarantees legal equality while taking into account price levels in Switzerland.

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/amva

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