Swiss Senate gives clear backing to EU treaty package

Swiss Senate gives clear backing to EU treaty package. Keystone-SDA

Following a debate lasting several hours, the Swiss Senate has voted in favour of the EU treaty package in principle – by a clear margin of 29 votes to 15. The details of the so-called Bilateral Agreements III can now be discussed.

From 2:38pm on Monday afternoon, the cards were laid on the table in the Senate regarding the EU dossier. As expected, the debate on whether to proceed was long and lively. The speeches from both sides made the implications of the treaties with the EU clear.

At 8:41pm, at the end of the general debate, only the seven-member Swiss People’s Party group as a whole, along with four German-speaking members each from the Centre Party and Radical-Liberal groups, voted against proceeding with the bill. The entire seven-member Social Democratic Party group, the three Greens, the Green Liberals representative, as well as ten members of the Centre Party group and eight members of the Radical-Liberal group voted in favour of the package in principle.

The result came as no surprise. The lines had already been drawn before the parliamentary debate: the right-wing Swiss People’s Party is fundamentally opposed to the entire package. The other parties, as well as the social partners and business organisations, support the bilateral approach in principle, but subject to certain conditions.

A long-negotiated compromise

More than half of the members of the Senate took the floor during the over five-hour debate on the motion to proceed. Afterwards, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin and Justice Minister Beat Jans delivered their combined one-hour case for the EU treaties.

The government’s package is the result of a long-negotiated compromise between political parties, cantons and social partners, said Senator Carlo Sommaruga from the left-wing Social Democratic Party and chair of the Senates’ Foreign Affairs Committee. Rejecting the treaty package would lead to an erosion of the existing agreements, he said.

Opponents in the Senate warned against voting yes to the treaty package, arguing it would weaken popular rights and place Switzerland under the jurisdiction of the EU. Members of the Swiss People’s Party also criticised the fact that the treaty package with the EU would once again significantly boost immigration into Switzerland.

For years, Switzerland’s largest party has been campaigning against the further development of relations with the EU, referring to it as a “treaty of submission”. However, there are also critics among centrist parties and within the Radical-Liberal Party, as the opening debate in the Senate once again revealed. For the majority, however, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

Debate set to continue for hours

The details of the comprehensive proposal are now set to be debated, likely until Wednesday evening. Among the contentious issues are the referendum question, wage protection, and the provisions on immigration, dynamic adoption of EU law, state aid, and education and research.

The package of agreements was negotiated between Bern and Brussels from March to December 2024. It comprises 94 EU legal acts, 18 agreements and protocols, and two joint declarations. The majority of the agreements were signed in Brussels on March 2, 2026, by Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.