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EU ‘freezes’ Swiss talks until Brexit outcome

Negotiations between the EU and Switzerland over the implementation of immigration curbs in Switzerland are on hold until Britain decides on its future in Europe, the Swiss press is reporting.

Published: 24 February 2016 11:47 CET

EU ‘freezes’ Swiss talks until Brexit outcome

Cameron and Juncker meet in Brussels. Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

For the past two years the Swiss federal government has been in discussions over how to apply the result of the February 9th 2014 referendum which approved the principle of limiting immigration to Switzerland.

The government – which opposed the initiative – must decide what form these limits should take before the measure is due to come into force in February next year.

The referendum result conflicted with existing bilateral agreements with the EU, which is founded on the core principle of free movement for its citizens.

In December the Swiss government presented a Plan B “safeguard” strategy which would apply the brakes to immigration unilaterally should negotiations over a bilateral agreement with the EU fail.

But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker rejected the proposal.

Now Brussels has “frozen” negotiations with Switzerland over the matter until the outcome of so-called Brexit is known, reports Le Temps, quoting a source high up in Europe.

Britain will go to the polls on June 23rd to decide whether it should leave the EU.

Le Temps' source told the paper that Switzerland would be wise to keep quiet on immigration for the time being.

“The smallest reference to quantitative restrictions or a quota system will be seen as a provocation,” the source said.

The warning comes days after Europe agreed a renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership.

But Switzerland cannot assume that concessions granted to Britain over immigration in the context of Brexit would then be granted to Switzerland too, said the source.

The source points out that British Prime Minister David Cameron had to settle for limits on child benefits for immigrants rather than restrictions on immigration itself.

Brussels will also be eyeing the result of this Sunday’s popular vote in Switzerland on the expulsion of foreign criminals.

“If that initiative passes, that would be a further blow to the principle of free movement,” the source told Le Temps.

Nevertheless, discussions on the matter will continue after the Brexit decision, said the source.

“We have every political, economic and emotional reason to find a solution. Our doors will be open again the day after the British referendum.”

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With the German far right coming out on top in two state elections earlier this month, the socialist-led national Berlin government has reimposed border controls on Western frontiers that are supposed to see freedom of movement in the European Union’s Schengen zone.

The Netherlands government, which includes the party of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, announced on Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from EU rules on asylum, with Prime Minister Dick Schoof declaring that there was an asylum “crisis”.

Meanwhile, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-wing Labour Party paid a visit to Rome for talks with Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, to discuss the strategies used by Italy in seeking to reduce migration.

Far-right parties performed strongly in June European elections, coming out on top in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections which resulted in right-winger Michel Barnier, who has previously called for a moratorium on migration, being named prime minister.

We are witnessing the “continuation of a rightward shift in migration policies in the European Union,” said Jerome Vignon, migration advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute think-tank.

It reflected the rise of far-right parties in the European elections in June, and more recently in the two regional elections in Germany, he said, referring to a “quite clearly protectionist and conservative trend”.

Strong message

“Anti-immigration positions that were previously the preserve of the extreme right are now contaminating centre-right parties, even centre-left parties like the Social Democrats” in Germany, added Florian Trauner, a migration specialist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking university in Brussels.

While the Labour government in London has ditched its right-wing Conservative predecessor administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, there is clearly interest in a deal Italy has struck with Albania to detain and process migrants there.

Within the European Union, Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian applicants, while laws have appeared authorising pushbacks at the border in Finland and Lithuania.

Under the pretext of dealing with “emergency” or “crisis” situations, the list of exemptions and deviations from the common rules defined by the European Union continues to grow.

All this flies in the face of the new EU migration pact, agreed only in May and coming into force in 2026.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Mannheim and most recently Solingen blamed on radical Islamists, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also expelled 28 Afghans back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Such gestures from Germany are all the more symbolic given how the country since World War II has tried to turn itself into a model of integration, taking in a million refugees, mainly Syrians in 2015-2016 and then more than a million Ukrainian exiles since the Russian invasion.

Germany is sending a “strong message” to its own public as well as to its European partners, said Trauner.

The migratory pressure “remains significant” with more than 500,000 asylum applications registered in the European Union for the first six months of the year, he said.

‘Climate on impunity’

Germany, which received about a quarter of them alone, criticises the countries of southern Europe for allowing migrants to circulate without processing their asylum applications, but southern states denounce a lack of solidarity of the rest of Europe.

The moves by Germany were condemned by EU allies including Greece and Poland, but Scholz received the perhaps unwelcome accolade of praise from Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Moscow’s closest friend in the European Union, when he declared “welcome to the club”.

The EU Commission’s failure to hold countries to account “only fosters a climate of impunity where unilateral migration policies and practices can proliferate,” said Adriana Tidona, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher.

But behind the rhetoric, all European states are also aware of the crucial role played by migrants in keeping sectors going including transport and healthcare, as well as the importance of attracting skilled labour.

“Behind the symbolic speeches, European leaders, particularly German ones, remain pragmatic: border controls are targeted,” said Sophie Meiners, a migration researcher with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Even Meloni’s government has allowed the entry into Italy of 452,000 foreign workers for the period 2023-2025.

“In parallel to this kind of new restrictive measures, they know they need to address skilled labour needs,” she said.