Switzerland and the European Union have for many years been negotiating a “Framework Agreement” to encompass and provide some common ground for the existing “bilateral” agreements between the two entities (see Newsletter no. 17). Discussions had been faltering for months over three stumbling blocks (salary protection, the dynamic adoption of EU rules, the Citizens’ Rights directive) which, unless amended, would undoubtedly have been rejected by the Swiss people in a referendum. However, the Swiss
Federal Council has quite unexpectedly said “stop” to the discussions and brought them to an end. As a consequence, solutions for the future are now quite unclear.
Author : SwisNot, Berne
