No signing of Swiss–EU institutional agreement
On 26th May Switzerland announced that it would not sign the institutional framework agreement (InstA) with the EU. This is a comprehensive agreement aimed at regulating Switzerland’s access to the EU internal market and increase legal certainty for citizen and economic operators. The agreement included an element on state aid and an effective dispute settlement mechanism.
Switzerland declared that there remain substantial differences with the EU on key aspects of the agreement namely state aid, protection of Swiss wages and freedom of movement of persons.
With this announcement the EU-Switzerland talks ended in deadlock with no certainty for the future. Whereas Switzerland wants to continue the talks to maintain and update the agreements in place, including the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), the EU has always made clear that, in the absence of a deal on the institutional framework agreement, a full update of the MRA would not be considered.
“Without this agreement, this modernisation of our relationship will not be possible and our bilateral agreements will inevitably age: 50 years have passed since the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement, 20 years since the bilateral I and II agreements. Already today, they are not up to speed for what the EU and Swiss relationship should and could be”, declared the European Commission some hours after the Swiss announcement.
CECE regrets this setback in the EU- Swiss relations and is particularly concerned about the impact that the Swiss announcement - and continued divergence of views with the EU - can have on the EU-Switzerland MRA on machinery.
CECE will closely monitor the next developments and will engage in a dialogue with the European institutions and the Swiss authorities to make the case against increasing uncertainty and higher administrative costs for all economic operators.
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