Switzerland and the European Union have taken a first step towards the resumption of a political dialogue, with the announcement of a high-level meeting in Brussels on November 15.
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Twitter on Friday that he was looking forward to meeting European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefcovic, his counterpart at the EU, to talk about “the way forward in our mutually beneficial relationship”.
Relations between Switzerland and the EU deteriorated in May when the Swiss government unilaterally walked away from seven years of negotiations over an institutional framework agreement with Brussels to oversee future long-term ties.
The EU Commission has also confirmed the meeting. It will be an opportunity to find out about the state of relations between the EU and Switzerland and the way forward, a commission spokesperson was quoted on the news wires as saying. Until recently, the EU had said that Switzerland was not a priority.
This will be the first meeting between Cassis and Šefcovic. Until September, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn had been in charge of the Swiss dossier and had met with Cassis several times.
Switzerland has previously said that it wants to continue relations with its biggest trading partner via bilateral accords and remain a “committed partner”.
One area of focus is a potential Swiss reassociation to the EU’s flagship research programme, Horizon Europe. After May’s events, the EU relegated Switzerland to non-associated country status. This cuts off Swiss researchers from funding by the European Commission, a move that higher education officials say is harmful to Swiss research.
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Brussels welcomes release of Swiss ‘cohesion payment’
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The European Union has welcomed the Swiss parliament’s decision to unconditionally release the second cohesion contribution.
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Citing “substantial differences”, the government has decided not to move ahead with a controversial institutional agreement on relations with the EU.
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EU remains cagey but firm about future Swiss approach
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The Vice-President of the European Commission has said that a general framework remains important. More details of the EU approach will come in autumn.
Axing of framework deal was unconstitutional, says professor
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Cottier, a professor emeritus of international economic law at the University of Bern, claims the government “overstepped its competencies”, the SonntagsZeitung newspaper reports. At the end of May, the government ended seven years of negotiations with the EU on a framework deal which would have replaced the over 120 bilateral deals which have regulated Swiss-EU relations for the past…
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