Ratification process begins for Swiss-EU accords
Switzerland and the European Union have initialled a new series of nine bilateral treaties in Brussels, formally marking the start of the ratification process.
The ceremony comes two days after Brussels agreed to postpone until July 2005 the introduction of a pan-European directive aimed at cracking down on tax evasion.
Under the terms of a deal negotiated between Bern and Brussels, Swiss banks will be required to levy a withholding tax on interest earned by EU residents with savings held in Switzerland.
The savings tax regulation was due to come into force next January, but the Swiss successfully argued that they could not implement the new rules in time.
Switzerland had earlier warned that any delay in initialling the accords would hold up the process of implementing them.
Referendum threat
The Swiss authorities can now launch a wide-ranging consultation procedure on the bilateral treaties.
The government expects to sign the accords in September before submitting them to parliament in December or March next year.
Earlier this week the cabinet came out against putting any of the nine accords with the EU to mandatory nationwide votes.
Three of Switzerland’s main parties, the Radicals, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats, have welcomed this decision, but the rightwing People’s Party and the isolationist Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland (CINS) have criticised the move.
Both are opposed to the Schengen agreement governing cross-border crime included in the treaties, and are expected to collect the 50,000 signatures needed to force a vote on the issue.
Opponents to Schengen have called it a “back-door entrance” to the EU.
More accords?
On Friday the Swiss interior minister, Pascal Couchepin, said the possibility of future negotiations on a third set of bilateral accords with the EU could not be ruled out.
Couchepin said continued dialogue with Switzerland’s EU neighbours was a “political fact of life”.
He added that though the EU was not interested in pursuing further bilateral talks with Switzerland at this stage, the reality of European politics and economics would eventually push both sides back to the negotiating table.
“Switzerland’s decision to remain outside the EU is no obstacle to reinforcing our collaboration,” he said.
“You never stop negotiating with your neighbours.”
swissinfo with agencies
The nine dossiers which make up the second set of Swiss-EU bilateral accords include:
Closer cooperation on security and asylum (Schengen/Dublin).
Customs fraud.
Taxation of EU residents’ savings income in Swiss banks.
Education and vocational training programmes.
Membership of the European Environmental Agency.
Media.
Free trade of processed agricultural products.
Access to pan-European statistics.
In compliance with the JTI standards
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