Swiss ready to move on EU transport deal

Date: 24/04/1997

By Mark Turner

SWITZERLAND is to propose a new compromise to break the deadlock in EU-Swiss talks on transport, the country's ambassador to the Union Alexis Lautenberg revealed this week.

The news will be welcomed by European Commission negotiators, who are warning that if the federation refuses to change its position soon, a whole package of accords between the Union and Switzerland, which has been under negotiation for several years, could fall through.

Despite mounting EU concern that the entire deal could be in jeopardy because of the continuing dispute over transport, Lautenberg told European Voice there was a good chance of success by the summer.

“We are absolutely determined to bring the negotiations to a head under the Dutch presidency,” he explained, pointing to the amount of general progress made over the last year. But he warned: “We cannot conclude the talks at any cost.”

The Swiss olive branch comes less than a week before EU foreign ministers are due to discuss progress on Union plans for a wide-ranging agreement with the federation at their meeting in Luxembourg next Tuesday (29 April).

They will be asked to comment on an emerging consensus on the free movement of people, approve agreements in other areas such as agriculture and consider whether Swiss officials should be able to sit in on Union meetings once a deal is signed.

But ministers will also be told that disagreements over transport remain unresolved, despite regular talks over the past six months. According to the Commission, that could spell doom for the whole Swiss deal, which will be agreed as a whole or not at all.

Although Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock and Swiss federal Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger agreed on the structure of a transport agreement last week, they made no progress on how much Switzerland might charge road-based hauliers to cross its territory.

“The Swiss would not budge an inch,” said one Commission official, adding that this was “a shame” because next week's EU ministerial meeting would be the “last real chance” to get a steer from governments.

But Lautenberg insisted that the agreement on structure was an important step.

The major sticking point remains Swiss concern at the prospect of thousands of European 40-tonne lorries thundering through their valleys.

Although Bern has agreed to raise the weight limit for Union lorries from 28 tonnes to 34 tonnes by 2001, and 40 tonnes by 2005, it insists that the increases must be compensated for by higher road charges, 'safeguard clauses' and a new rail link. Otherwise, the Swiss people will not accept the deal in a referendum, it says.

When asked by the Commission to suggest a figure for road charges, Switzerland proposed a maximum of 375 ecu per journey, although it opposed the principle of including a figure in the agreement.

The Union declared this totally unacceptable, proposing instead a 150-ecu charge. The two sides have been deadlocked ever since.

The Swiss now appear ready to lower their figure, but will demand the right to raise the price substantially if lorry drivers do not choose to take the train as a result of the toll.

Lautenberg also insists that unless the EU agrees to grant Swiss aircraft the right to ply their trade between and within Union countries, his country will find any road deal extremely difficult to accept.