Berne warns lack of positive signals threatens talks

Date: 04/07/1996

WHEN EU foreign ministers meet on 15 July, they had better look a little closer to home than usual and concentrate on Switzerland.

If they do not, warns Berne's envoy to the Union, the consequences could be serious.

EU-Swiss negotiations have reached their 'make or break' point after two years, and Swiss Ambassador Alexis Lautenberg says that unless Union governments give “positive signals” very soon, Switzerland's team may throw in the towel.

While talks in five of seven areas under discussion are now relatively-trouble free, two issues - the right of EU citizens to work in Switzerland and access for heavy lorries from the Union to Swiss roads - are still blocking a series of bilateral agreements which many hope could open a path for Switzerland to join the European Economic Area (EEA) and even, one day, the Union itself.

In the past three months, Berne has made proposals which amount to substantial concessions when compared with its original negotiating position.

But Lautenberg warns that the Union may be wasting the good will that was used to produce them.

“These proposals are built on wide consultation with political parties and industries. That front is beginning to erode away because of the clear sense that the Union is not responding with sufficient vigour, clarity and substance,” he told European Voice this week, adding: “If we do not get those signals very soon, I really fear the whole process is in danger.”

Since Berne tabled its new offers in April, officials have predicted that negotiations could be completed by the end of the year.

But Lautenberg says: “If there are no positive signals in the next weeks, we may not reach the end of the year because the whole thing will blow up.”

Lautenberg is the first to admit that current Swiss laws limiting the numbers of entry visas and work permits given to foreigners, as well as the rule limiting freight tonnage on Swiss roads to 28 tonnes, are outdated, non-constructive policies.

But while the Swiss are keen to open up their highly regulated and extremely rigid labour market, he says the Union must also ensure some access for Swiss citizens.

Switzerland is also ready to ease up on the weight limit which not only causes heavy traffic to be diverted to Austrian, French and Italian roads, but causes Switzerland, in the ambassador's words, to be “invaded by empty lorries”.

But EU officials must not see Berne's offers as mere rule changes, says Lautenberg.

They must understand the magnitude of a gesture which will cause the government enormous political difficulties at home.

“We're not only raising the tonnage limit, and adding taxes, we're changing a whole system,” he says. “We will have difficulties on the domestic front, but we will do everything we can.”

If the Union does not respond with equal enthusiasm, the ambassador warns, it will lose not only a bilateral deal but the seeds of an Alpine region transportation concept which is important to Austria, France and Italy.

He also argues that citizens of all EU member states stand to gain much from their right to be treated as equals when bidding for Swiss jobs and contracts, and that Union ministers should not throw this opportunity away.

Lautenberg says EU officials should strike now if they want his country to move closer to the Union.

“The political direction behind Switzerland's approach to the Union now is to find some ground under our feet for a next, more ambitious step,” says the ambassador, whose message for EU governments is a simple one: “Take what you can rather than lose the whole thing.”