EU, Swiss hail 'historic' new deal resetting relations

The European Union and Switzerland announced Friday a new set of agreements aimed at recalibrating relations between the two neighbours after years of often arduous negotiations.

However, the deal has already been denounced by Switzerland's hard-right main party, while its trade unions also have serious reservations.

And Swiss voters will have the final say in a referendum.

The agreement is a bid to stabilise ties between the Alpine nation and the surrounding EU bloc, currently tangled up in more than 120 separate agreements.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called the agreement "historic".

"This marks the beginning of a long-lasting cooperation," she said in Bern, unveiling the reset alongside Switzerland's President Viola Amherd.

Amherd called the deal a "milestone for the stabilisation and further development" of relations.

"This is in the interests of Switzerland's and the EU's population, our economies, employees, consumers, students and researchers."

 A 'submission treaty'  

Friday's conclusion of negotiations is just the first step in refreshing relations between Switzerland and its biggest trading partner.

On the EU side, the European Council must approve the agreement -- in theory unanimously by the 27 member states.

The Swiss government wants to formally rubber stamp the agreement in the first quarter of 2025, submit it to parliament in early 2026, and then to the Swiss people at the ballot box, probably in 2027.

The hard-right Swiss People's Party (SVP), the country's biggest party, is fiercely opposed to any rapprochement with the EU.

Earlier Friday, SVP lawmakers stood outside the parliament in Bern holding candles in a vigil "for our independence and democracy".

They denounced what they called the "package of lies" in the "submission treaty" to the "crisis-ridden EU".

SVP president Marcel Dettling said they were "fighting for the self-determination of the Swiss people".

  Long and winding road  

Brussels has been seeking to simplify and harmonise ties with Bern since 2008. Negotiations began in 2014 but relations chilled when Switzerland suddenly slammed the door on the talks in 2021.

Negotiations tentatively resumed in March. With the goal of getting a deal before 2025, the two sides met around 200 times.

Unlike previous attempts to seal an overarching framework agreement, the process instead went for a sector-by-sector approach.

The talks have concentrated on updating five agreements -- on free movement of people; land transport; air transport; agriculture; and mutual recognition of conformity assessments -- and on forging new accords on electricity, food safety and health.

An arbitration tribunal will settle disputes. Switzerland will have to adopt EU law for agreements concerning the internal market.

It can oppose this, but Brussels would be able to take "proportionate compensatory measures", according to a government document.

Switzerland has obtained a safeguard clause to suspend free movement in certain circumstances.

But it will have to increase its financial contribution to the EU's Cohesion Fund -- aimed at reducing economic and social disparities in the bloc -- from 130 million euros a year to 350 million.

  'Really hard work'  

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said that while the bloc was Switzerland's main trading partner, Switzerland was the EU's fourth-biggest partner for goods and third-biggest for services, with trade between the two worth some 550 billion euros ($575 billion) overall.

As for the possibility of referendums scuppering the deal, he said it had taken more than 10 years of "really hard work" to reach, and had been "so careful over the Swiss specificities and concerns in all aspects".

The Swiss Trade Union Federation said it supported openness towards the EU as long as workers benefited from it -- and therefore branded the outcome "insufficient".

"Wage protection will be dismantled and public services weakened," it said.

The Swiss business federation Economiesuisse welcomed reaching this stage.

"Stable relations and legal certainty in our dealings with the EU, Switzerland's most important trading partner, are of essential importance for our economy," said its chief executive Monika Ruhl.