Switzerland provisionally signs agreement on EU programmes

Agreement on Swiss participation in EU programmes Keystone-SDA

Switzerland’s chief negotiator, Patric Franzen, has provisionally signed the agreement on Swiss participation in EU programmes with his European counterpart in Brussels on Wednesday.

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The agreement on EU programmes covers Switzerland’s involvement in initiatives like Horizon Europe, Euratom, ITER, Digital Europe, Erasmus+, and EU4Health. However, it won’t take effect until the entire Switzerland-EU package is ratified, according to the foreign and economics ministries.

However, the agreement can be applied early, letting Switzerland join Horizon Europe, the Euratom programme and Digital Europe retroactively from 2025, ITER from 2026 and Erasmus+ from 2027. Participation in EU4Health is set to begin once the health agreement, part of the overall package, comes into force.

Scientific cooperation between Switzerland and the EU

“This is an important step in strengthening cooperation between the EU and Switzerland,” the European Commission stated in a press release.

Due to the transitional arrangement, Swiss researchers have had access to nearly all Horizon Europe project calls since the start of this year. To keep this access and ensure Switzerland stays part of the programme, the EU programmes agreement needs to be signed again this year.

The Confederation notes that the two parties have only initialled the agreement, meaning negotiators are confirming the text matches the negotiation outcomes. In Switzerland, the formal signing is the responsibility of the government.

In Brussels, the European Commission needs approval from the member states before signing the agreement. To ensure it gets signed this year, the contract for the programmes has been prioritised over the rest of the agreements. The Swiss government says the signing is set for November.

Translated from French with DeepL/sp

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