Euroblogs in German

Yesterday I looked at the euro crisis and euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu, the multilingual aggregator. As I said:

Increasingly Europeans realise that they are in the same boat, although some design the improved vessels for the future, some recall scrapped luxury liners of past glory, some see the Titanic fatally heading towards the iceberg (while deck-chairs are being arranged) and some remind us of the harsh and unjust treatment (austerity) which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty.

German and Germany

According to Wikipedia, German was (2007) the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union (18 per cent of EU population; plus the mother tongue of 4.6 million in the enclave Switzerland). Some 32 per cent of people in the EU were able to speak German, making it the second most widely understood language after English (51%).

In political terms, the rest of the European Union and the eurozone have been waiting for Merkozy to stop fiddling, while the UK prime minister David Cameron can mostly watch and hope on the sidelines, so it is impossible to ignore Germany, the most populous nation of the EU in addition to having the strongest economy.

Indeed, together German speaking Germany (82 million) and Austria (8.4 million) represent about 27% of the population in the eurozone and about 18% of the EU total (Eurostat).


Euroblogs in German

In the spirit of cross-border discussion and understanding, Europaeum - @mteu on Twitter – one of the Bloggingportal editors, has compiled an English presentation of the active EU blogosphere in German, including Austrian ones, three from the Baltic states and a Franco-German blog.

Martin then continued with an entry with German language blogs listed on Bloggingportal, which have published since July 2011, a much longer list including a number of policy blogs and blogs by MEPs.

If your euroblog is still missing (or someone else's), you can propose the blog on EU politics or policy areas to Bloggingportal.eu.



Ralf Grahn

Switzerland: ”Improve EU relations” - but how?

For the European Union a reality check, as good as good as they come: EU roars, but Switzerland not moved (3 January 2011).


Official EU and Swiss positions

The official views and expectations of the European Union with regard to Switzerland were defined by the General Affairs Council (GAC):

Council conclusions on EU relations with EFTA countries; 3060th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting Brussels, 14 December 2010

In September 2010 the Swiss Federal Council (government) had adopted a report on the relationship between the Confederation and the European Union. You can link to the fresh position paper:

An overview of the Federal Council’s Report on the Evaluation of Switzerland’s European Policy (published 17 September 2010; a nine page summary in English)

For the full report of about a hundred pages you have to choose one of the official languages of Switzerland, German, French or Italian:

Bericht des Bundesrates über die Evaluation der schweizerischen Europapolitik

Rapport du Conseil fédéral sur l’évaluation de la politique européenne de la Suisse

Rapporto del Consiglio federale sulla valutazione della politica europea svizzera


Swiss government discussion

Before Christmas the Swiss federal government had a first discussion about the conclusions by the EU ministers about the relations with EFTA member Switzerland.

I failed to find any official documentation, so we have to look at media reports from and reactions to the press briefing 22 December 2010.


Media reactions

According to Basler Zeitung, the Swiss Federal Council (government) rejected EU criticism of how Switzerland applied treaties with the European Union: Der Bundesrat trotzt der EU (22 December 2010).

SR DRS reported that the European Union wants automatic Swiss adaptation to EU law, but that this is out of the question for the Federal Council: Beziehungen zur EU: Stillstand (22 December 2010).

Neither the EU nor the government of Switzerland want to move from their earlier positions, reported Swissinfo.ch: Beziehungen Schweiz-EU: Optionen für Zukunft liegen auf dem Tisch (22 December 2010).

The Basler Zeitung came to the conclusion that the bilateral model is the only option, but the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union needs a new thrust: Zeit für den grossen Kuhhandel (23 December 2010).

The newspaper describes the Swiss position in the following terms:

Für Bern ist aber klar: Eine automatische Übernahme von EU-Recht, wie sie Brüssel faktisch fordert, liegt nicht drin. Innenpolitisch ist nur eine Lösung durchsetzbar, die Mitsprache, genügend Zeit für die Umsetzung neuer Regeln und ein Schiedsgericht vorsieht und auf Automatismen verzichtet. Alles andere kollidiert mit dem Schweizer Politsystem und seinen Abläufen und hilft der SVP – diese wartet bloss darauf, dem Bundesrat im Wahljahr 2011 einen europapolitischen Kniefall vorwerfen zu können.

The Basler Zeitung is worth reading for its views on important dossiers, as well as for its evaluation of the chances for agreement on the whole.


Micheline Calmy-Rey

On 1 January 2011 foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey became the president of the Swiss Confederation for a year, and on the same day SwissInfo.ch published an interview where she presented her views on the year ahead: "Mehr Selbstvertrauen statt Selbstkritik", headlined ”New president urges more self-confidence” in the English translation.

President Calmy-Rey wants to improve EU relations:

DRS: Switzerland is facing important decisions in its European policy. How can you make the climate in Switzerland more favourable towards Brussels?

M.C.-R.: Consolidating relations with the EU is one of the priorities of my presidential year. These relations need to be as good as they can be, since the EU is our most important political and economic partner.

So far we have followed the bilateral path. The results of this path have been good as far as the economic and security are concerned.

But as far as our sovereignty goes, the results have been more mixed. We have adopted a lot of things from the EU, such as developments in the legal area, but we cannot have our own say. That is not something I can be satisfied with.

The EU says that the 120 agreements [including the bilaterals I and II] incurred a great deal of work, so relations must be simplified. It argues that we have profited from our access to its market with its 500 million consumers. So it claims we should also adopt EU regulations.

But as a non-EU-member, on the basis of our sovereignty, we say “no” to the automatic adoption of EU law. Should we embark on such discussions, our democratic rights such as initiatives and referendums would have to be preserved.

The discussions about ”horisontal” issues of streamlined adoption and homogenous implementation of EU law have actually started at working group level, but president Calmy-Rey offers no concrete suggestions as to how to improve the relationship.

Lamenting the lack of influence and the potential offer of (political level) discussions seem to be the only concessions, and if constitutional initiatives and referendums exclude all automaticity, we have difficulties seeing how the EU and Switzerland can make progress.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. ”EU questions Hungary as presidency opens”, writes The Irish Times, one of the many articles I hope that EPP president Wilfried Martens reads as he ponders the founding values of the European Union, as well as the principle of non-discrimination and fundamental rights in the EU. The biggest political group has the greatest responsibility towards the citizens.

EU roars, but Switzerland not moved

Yesterday we looked at the fresh foreign policy position paper of one of the important Swiss political parties, FDP. Die Liberalen, which confirmed our picture that Switzerland is deeply dug in with its bilateral European policy credo: European Union: The Swiss entrenched (FDP. The Liberals) (2 January 2011).


Media reception of EU conclusions

Here are a few media reports which reflect the reception of the conclusions of the Council of the European Union.

Leigh Phillips on Euobserver.com highlighted the controversial issues in the conclusions of the EU's General Affairs Council: EU to Switzerland: 'Where are we going with this relationship?' (15 December 2010).

Almost in real time, the online community newspaper Genevalunch.com presented both selected criticism from the EU Council and the same day defence from the Swiss Integration Office: Swiss, EU, agree to disagree – for now – over taxes, bilateral approach (14 December 2010).

On the day of the EU GAC conclusions, Swissinfo.ch noted the increasingly strident language from the European Union, but Swiss experts were far from shocked: EU reprimand will have little impact on Bern (14 December 2010).

In a nutshell:

In Switzerland, experts are predicting there will be little fallout from the findings of the Council of the EU.

The article is worth reading for its discussion of individual issues as well.

***

The EU giant has roared, but Swiss experts expect nothing much to happen. A sobering thought for the member states who have created the European Union.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. The Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht has posted in English a blog post written by the Hungarian journalist Judit Bayer: What's the Problem with the Hungarian Media Law? You could ask @MartensEPP, @epptweet and @EPPGroup on Twitter to dedicate 2011 to the founding values of and the fundamental rights in the European Union, starting at the top: #EuTrioHu



Read Kopfzeiler ”Ungarn: Offener Brief an Botschaft und EU – Zu Ungarns Medienzensurgesetz” (part German, part English), and then do you bit for media freedom in Europe.

European Union: The Swiss entrenched (FDP. The Liberals)

Yesterday's blog post tried to be clear enough about official Swiss insistence on the bilateral nature of the relationship with the European Union: EU and Switzerland disagree on relationship (1 January 2011).

If anyone needs convincing, Simon Gemperli described in NZZ Online how FDP. Die Liberalen (FDP. The Liberals) sent Switzerland's applications to join the European Union and the European Economic Area to the scrapheep of history: FDP schwört dem EU-Beitritt ab (18 October 2010)

Die FDP ist gegen einen Beitritt zur EU, gegen einen EWR-Vertrag und gegen ein Rahmenabkommen, stattdessen bekennt sich die Partei zum konventionellen bilateralen Weg – Ende der Botschaft, auf die sich die Delegierten in Herisau im Hinblick aufs Wahljahr geeinigt haben.

Those who are interested in more detail can look at the international position paper of FDP. The Liberals (in German):

16. Oktober 2010 Positionspapier der FDP.Die Liberalen: Die Schweiz in einer globalisierten Welt Selbstbewusste Aussenpolitik, Freihandel und aktive Vermittlung zwischen Konfliktparteien (7 pages)

The Swiss Liberals are now singing from the bilataral hymn sheet with the rest of the political establishment. The programme defines the general characteristics of Swiss foreign policy in four paragraphs before it introduces European policies:

Aussenpolitik bleibt auch Europapolitik. Trotz globaler Ausrichtung: Die Schweiz liegt im Herzen Europas. Mit dem benachbarten Europa sind wir politisch, wirtschaftlich, kulturell und sozial eng verbunden. Ein gutes Verhältnis mit Europa ist zentral. Seine Institutionen und Staaten bleiben eine Priorität unserer Aussenpolitik, denn der Erfolg unseres Denk-, Werk- und Finanzplatzes setzt ein politisch stabiles und wirtschaftlich dynamisches europäisches Umfeld voraus. Deshalb ist auch unser Beitrag zur Stabilität des vereinten Kontinents im Interesse der Schweiz. Unsere Beziehungen zu Europa bedürfen weiterhin einer soliden Basis: den Bilateralen Verträgen. Sie sind auszubauen, wo es dem gegenseitigen Interesse entspricht. Andernorts verpflichtet der Freiraum als Drittstaat unsere Politik zur konsequenten strategischen Weiterentwicklung und Nutzung unserer Standortvorteile.

After the introduction the programme goes into more detail (pages 3 to 5), worth quoting to get acquainted with a Swiss view on Europe:

3. Europa: Dank den Bilateralen die EU als Chance verstehen


Die EU ist politisch, kulturell und wirtschaftlich unser wichtigster Partner. Das Verhältnis zwischen der Schweiz und der EU ist eng und gut. Die Schweiz ist der drittgrösste Warenlieferant und der zweitgrösste Kunde der EU. Auch wenn die Märkte der Schwellenländer rasant an Bedeutung gewinnen – mit 60 Prozent der Ausfuhren und 80 Prozent der Einfuhren bleibt die EU unser wichtigster Handelspartner. Jeder dritte Arbeitsplatz hängt am Handel mit der EU. Ebenso wichtig ist die Personenfreizügigkeit: Rund 870'000 EU-Bürger leben hier – umgekehrt sind 380'000 Schweizer im EU-Ausland ansässig. Die EU ist für die Schweiz keine Bedrohung, sondern eine Chance. Gleiches gilt für die EU: Sie kann vom Föderalismus, dem Einbezug der Bevölkerung in der direkten Demokratie oder Instrumenten wie der aus der FDP-Schmiede stammenden Schuldenbremse profitieren.

Die Schweiz muss die engen und privilegierten Beziehungen mit der EU wahren und weiter entwickeln. Der bewährte bilaterale Weg ist die beste Lösung für die Schweiz, um die Beziehungen mit der EU gezielt zu pflegen und auszubauen. So haben die bilateralen Verträge der Schweiz in den vergangenen Jahren wirtschaftliche Prosperität und Austausch mit dem europäischen Ausland gebracht – ohne dass wir unsere Souveränität aufgeben mussten.

Auch in Zukunft ist der bilaterale Weg erfolgsversprechend. Er bietet der Schweiz die Möglichkeit, die Beziehungen mit der EU gezielt dort auszubauen, wo unser Standort und Wohlstand gestärkt werden. Auch die EU hat Interesse an der Weiterführung des Bilateralismus, wie wiederholte Gesuche um neue Vereinbarungen zeigen. Anderslautende Thesen mit Abgesängen auf den Bilateralen Weg überzeugen nicht. Dieser Weg bietet der Schweiz weiterhin die einzigartige Chance, ihren Freiraum als unabhängiger Staat gezielt und bewusst zu nutzen. Alternativen zum bilateralen Weg gibt es zurzeit keine. So ist eine Abschottung in einem „Alleingang“ keine Option für die Schweiz. Ebenso wenig kommt ein EU- oder ein EWR-Beitritt in Frage. Diese Ansicht teilt eine grosse Mehrheit der Bürgerinnen und Bürger. Ein Beitritt wäre auch wegen höherer Mehrwertsteuern und Transferzahlungen an die EU unpopulär. EU und EWR würden der Schweiz keinen Mehrwert bringen.

Forderung 4: Der bewährte bilaterale Weg ist die beste Lösung für die Schweiz, um die Beziehungen mit der EU gezielt zu pflegen und auszubauen. Die FDP setzt sich daher für eine Fortführung und gezielte Verstärkung des erfolgreichen bilateralen Weges ein. Weder eine Abschottung in einem „Alleingang“, noch ein EU- oder EWR-Beitritt sind aktuelle Optionen. Damit ist aus Sicht der FDP das Beitrittsgesuch an die Europäische Gemeinschaft von 1992
gegenstandslos.

Der Bilaterale Weg ist erfolgreich und bei der Bevölkerung fest verankert. Auch wenn Verhandlungen durch institutionelle Veränderungen auf EU-Seite uns künftig mehr fordern, ist das kein Grund, die Segel zu streichen. Vielmehr verlangt dies eine Stärkung unserer Vertretung in den EU-Mitgliedstaaten sowie in Brüssel sowie eine kluge Europapolitik. Diese umfasst folgende Stossrichtungen:


3.1 Gezielter Ausbau des bilateralen Wegs


Um den Standort Schweiz und unseren Wohlstand, sowie die Beziehungen zur EU zu stärken, muss die Schweiz den bilateralen Weg gezielt mit weiteren sektoriellen Verträgen ausbauen. Der komplexere Verhandlungsweg mit der EU verlangt dabei zuerst eine vertiefte Prüfung der Interessenlage. Die Schweiz soll nicht in einer Vielzahl nicht zentraler Bereiche als Antragssteller auftreten, da dies unsere Verhandlungsposition schwächt. Gemeinsame Interessen bestehen namentlich bei Elektrizität, Öffentlicher Gesundheit, geschützten Ursprungsbezeichnungen, dem Satellitennavigationssystem Galileo, dem Agrarfreihandel und der Sicherheitspolitik.

In vielen Bereichen ist die Übernahme von EU-Normen im Interesse unserer Unternehmen und des Standorts Schweiz, etwa im Rahmen des Cassis-de-Dijon-Prinzips. So werden unsere Unternehmen möglichst wenig durch EU-Normen behindert. Das bedeutet aber nicht, dass EU-Recht automatisch nachvollzogen werden soll – im Gegenteil: EU-Recht soll somit nur dann nachvollzogen werden, wenn es im Interesse der Schweiz liegt.

Bisher wenig beachtet wurde das Entstehen eines Europäischen Sicherheitsraums, der sich im Zuge der Erweiterung der EU markant ausgedehnt hat. Die Gemeinsame Aussen- und Sicherheitspolitik (GSVP) wird zum immer wichtigeren Akteur. Aus sicherheits- und finanzpolitischen Überlegungen ist eine engere Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen der GSVP unter Wahrung der Neutralität anzustreben. Ziel ist ein Beobachterstatus bei der GSVP und der für Forschung und Beschaffung wichtigen europäischen Verteidigungsagentur.

Forderung 5: Die FDP fordert den Abschluss weiterer bilateraler Verträge insbesondere in den Bereichen Elektrizität, öffentliche Gesundheit, geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnungen, Satellitennavigation-System Galileo, Agrarfreihandel sowie Chemikalienkontrolle (REACH).

Forderung 6: Die FDP fordert eine engere Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen der GSVP unter Wahrung der Neutralität. Es sollen Verhandlungen aufgenommen werden, um die Zusammenarbeit im militärischen und zivilen Sicherheitsbereich mit der EU zu systematisieren, zu strukturieren und auf eine solide rechtliche Basis zu stellen.


3.2. Als Drittstaat Freiraum gezielt und bewusst nutzen


Nicht in allen Bereichen sind weitere Bilaterale Verträge sinnvoll. Bei der Handelspolitik, der Steuerpolitik oder immer mehr auch beim Arbeitsrecht ist unser Freiraum als Drittstaat eine Verpflichtung für eine bewusste und strategische Standortpolitik. Dank eigenständiger Handelspolitik kann die Schweiz vom Protektionismus der grossen Handelsblöcke profitieren und rasch mit aufstrebenden Schwellenländern Freihandelsverträge abschliessen. Ein flexibler Arbeitsmarkt ist zentral für eine niedrige Arbeitslosigkeit und Steuerwettbewerb garantiert gleichzeitig tiefe Schulden und tiefe Steuern.

Diesen Freiraum hat die Schweiz selbstbewusst zu verteidigen. Als Landesregierung muss der Bundesrat potenzielle Konflikte antizipieren und ausgebrochene Krisen wie etwa den immer noch schwelenden Steuerstreit proaktiv mit Reformvorschlägen angehen. Diese sichern unsere Standortvorteile ab oder verstärken sie gar und beseitigen und Rechtsunsicherheit. Vor allem aber gilt ein Auftrag an die Politik, den Freiraum als Drittstaat strategisch zu nutzen und die Schweiz als international offene Plattform zu positionieren.

Forderung 7: Den Freiraum eines Drittstaats hat die Schweiz gezielt und strategisch zu nutzen. Der Bundesrat präsentiert für die kommende Legislatur eine entsprechende Strategie.


3.3 Erweiterungsbeitrag als Friedens- und Stabilitätsdividende


Dank der EU und ihrer Vorläuferorganisationen herrscht in Westeuropa seit Jahrzehnten Frieden. Davon profitiert die Exportnation Schweiz. Unser Land ist bereit, ihren Beitrag zum wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Zusammenwachsen der EU zu leisten. Nicht als ein Preis für den Bilateralen Weg, sondern als integraler Bestandteil der schweizerischen Europapolitik. Dieser Beitrag ist wichtig für eine weiterhin erfolgreiche Interessenwahrung gegenüber der EU. Schweizer Unternehmen leisten grosse Investitionen und Wissenstransfer in viele EU-Staaten. Allfällige freiwillige finanzielle Beiträge der Schweiz sind selbstbewusst zu diskutieren und mit Forderungen wie Mitbestimmung bei der Mittelverwendung samt Teilnahme von Schweizer Unternehmen zu verknüpfen.

In French

The Swiss Liberal foreign policy position paper is available in French as well:

16 octobre 2010 Papier de position du PLR.Les Libéraux-Radicaux: La Suisse face à la mondialisation Politique extérieure autonome, libre-échange et médiation active entre les parties en conflit


In summary

A free summary: Not only are EU and EEA membership scrapped, but there are no promises about more streamlined procedures for the adoption of (new) EU acquis (legislation, case-law and practice). Mutual recognition is preferred ahead of harmonisation of legislation. Switzerland shall not be seen as begging for new bilateral treaties in other than a few high priority areas. It is in the interest of Switzerland to fight tooth and nail for every competitive advantage.

There seems to be a small error in the references to the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) ”Gemeinsame Aussen- und Sicherheitspolitik” = GASP and the common security and defence policy (CSDP) ”Gemeinsame Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik” = GSVP, but substantially the Liberals want Switzerland to be able to participate in building the European security architecture, as long as Switzerland can remain neutral when it wants to and promote its industrial interests at every turn.

The Liberals are, in principle, ready for the Swiss Confederation to continue with voluntary contributions to economic and social cohesion in Europe, if Switzerland can influence how the funds are used and they profit Swiss businesses.

Everything is based on interests, little on values.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Customary European People's Party note to editors: ”The EPP is the largest and most influential European-level political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the Commission, Council, and Parliament, 14 EU and 6 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.”

My question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?



The authoritarian media law in Hungary (and other anti-pluralistic media orders) got the backing of the European People´s Party president Wilfried Martens. Again the Swedish MEP Gunnar Hökmark gained my respect by taking a principled approach, now to media freedom. Hökmark is the only well-known EPP profile to do so that I have managed to find since the clear condemnation by Jean Asselborn, foreign minister of Luxembourg, but it is nice to know that the EPP is not totally corrupted by cronyism.

EU and Switzerland disagree on relationship

As we saw in the previous blog entries 'EU relations with Switzerland: End of the road for bilateral model' (30 December 2010) and 'EU conclusions regarding Switzerland' (31 December 2010), the General Affairs Council (GAC) gave the impression that the European Union is fed up with the administration of 179 bilateral agreements with EFTA country Switzerland:

Council conclusions on EU relations with EFTA countries; 3060th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting Brussels, 14 December 2010


Swiss approach

The official approach of Switzerland is in marked contrast with the EU aspirations. I quote the second paragraph of the ”Welcome!” page of the Integration Office, adding only boldface:

Switzerland's policy towards Europe is based on bilateral negotiations. Cooperation takes the form of bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU in specific areas. Beginning with the Free Trade Agreement of 1972 a whole series of bilateral agreements have been concluded step by step, notably in bilateral negotiation rounds I and II. As well as creating the conditions for mutual access to each other's markets, these agreements serve as the basis for close cooperation in areas including research, security, asylum policy, culture and the environment. This bilateral approach has been the foundation stone for Switzerland's policy of openness and cooperation with its European neighbours. The process has been endorsed by the people in a number of referenda.

It is hard to miss five ”bilateral” in a fairly short paragraph.

On the same web page there is a link to the 14 December 2010 statement of the Integration Office about the GAC conclusions.

The statement noted that the EU Council expressed criticism of several aspects of the relations. The Integration Office responded to the criticism:

 The present bilateral agreements with the EU are working well. Although specific matters relating to the application of these agreements are often discussed, given the intensity of the bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU, this is normal. Switzerland criticises for example the fact that Swiss employers are required to contribute to the holiday pay funds of various EU member states, even though they already pay these contributions in Switzerland. Problems concerning interpretation of agreements can as a rule be discussed between the States concerned or within the framework of the Mixed Committee.

 In our view, the accompanying measures on the free movement of persons are overall in conformity with the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (FZA) and constitute appropriate measures to protect employees. Switzerland is not the only country to have insisted on such measures. A number of EU member states have also introduced such measures on the basis of a corresponding EU directive (concerning the posting of workers). Experience has shown that the accompanying measures are necessary to protect wages and working conditions in Switzerland. In this context for example, checks carried out by labour inspectors revealed breaches in one fifth of cases.

The free movement of persons has been a major factor in intensifying the bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU. Today, over one million EU citizens live in Switzerland and over 200,000 people from the EU cross the border every day to work into Switzerland. Between 2006 and 2008, the number of cross-border services provided in Switzerland rose by around 25 percent. The EU benefits greatly from its free movement agreement with Switzerland.

 In previous discussions, Switzerland has put forward constructive proposals on specific cantonal tax regimes. However, these proposals were rejected by at least one EU member state. Switzerland has demonstrated a constructive approach to other areas of tax policy by considering, for example, a possible revision of the bilateral agreement on the taxation of savings income, and has even expressed its willingness, under certain conditions, to enter into a dialogue with the EU on the code of conduct on corporate taxation.

 Swiss regional policy is designed to promote innovation and increase value added in the rural and mountainous regions of the country. Tax concessions at federal level have only a marginal effect and are only provided for structurally weak regions. Only 10 percent of the Swiss population live in those regions where such tax concessions can be granted. Swiss regional policy measures are not anti-competitive.

 Switzerland has been supporting Central and Eastern European countries since the beginning of the 1990s within the framework of its assistance to countries in transition. It has continued this policy since 2007 by granting a contribution to reduce social and economic disparities in the enlarged EU and, in 2010, the scope of the contribution was extended to include Romania and Bulgaria. The Federal Council will decide at an appropriate time and in the context of the country's overall relations with the EU whether to maintain this support. In making this decision, the Federal Council will take past experience of the enlargement contribution into consideration as well as the needs of the recipient states.

 On 18 August 2010, the Federal Council set up an informal Swiss/EU working group with a remit to discuss with the European Commission the possible horizontal institutional provisions of future agreements between Switzerland and the EU. The working group is looking at the possibility of dynamically adjusting the agreements to comply with new EU legislation, how to ensure the coherent application and consistent interpretation of future agreements, and the development of an effective dispute procedure. We share these aims with the EU. Any solution must respect the sovereignty of both parties and the efficient operation of their institutions.

On 18 August 2010 at a special meeting dedicated to EU matters, the Federal Council decided that Switzerland would continue to conduct its relations with the EU on the basis of bilateral sector agreements. The Federal Council considers that the bilateral way is currently the most suitable way to ensure the necessary convergence of Switzerland's and the EU's respective interests.

The statement of the Integration Office reflects the views expressed by the Swiss Federal Council (government), summarised in English on the web page Report on the Evaluation of Switzerland's European Policy. On the web page there is a link to a nine page summary (in English):

An overview of the Federal Council’s Report on the Evaluation of Switzerland’s European Policy (published 17 September 2010)

For the full report of about a hundred pages you have to opt for one of the official languages of Switzerland, German, French or Italian:

Bericht des Bundesrates über die Evaluation der schweizerischen Europapolitik

Rapport du Conseil fédéral sur l’évaluation de la politique européenne de la Suisse

Rapporto del Consiglio federale sulla valutazione della politica europea svizzera


Bargaining

On the face of it, we get the impression that the EU and Switzerland disagree about the very nature of their future relationship. Switzerland does not even promise to pay anything for its access to the internal market by promoting social and economic cohesion.

However, 'Can't live with them, can't live without them' practically forces the European Union and Switzerland to find an accommodation they can both claim as a victory with regard to new EU acquis.

That still leaves different taxation issues and assorted other matters to be hammered out.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. The European Citizen noticed that the president of the European People's Party Wilfried Martens chose to defend the media law of the Hungarian EPP member party Fidesz. I would hope for the EPP to start putting the founding values of the European Union and the fundamental rights of EU citizens above the media models of Orbán and Berlusconi.

EU conclusions regarding Switzerland

Through legislation and jurisprudence the body of European Union law is in constant movement, but with Switzerland each relevant change has to be negotiated separately and every one of the 179 bilateral treaties administered. This is more cumbersome than the European Union is willing to accept for the future: EU relations with Switzerland: End of the road for bilateral model (30 December 2010).

Publicly, the the European Union has described its aims in vague terms, and voters in Switzerland have earlier rejected EU membership and even joining the European Economic Area (EEA). Surrounded by EU member states, Switzerland needs smooth relations, but until now only the piecemeal approach embodied by the concept ”bilateral” has been able to satisfy sovereignist electors.

There are, perhaps, many ways to skin a cat, but it becomes more complicated if you have to get the agreement not only of the cat, but of all (Swiss) felines.

In states affected by referendumitis anything can happen, so do not count your blessings until the referendum results are in.


Specific conclusions


After the general remarks in yesterday's blog entry, the main purpose of this blog post is to present the specific conclusions of the EU General Affairs Council (GAC) with regard to EFTA country Switzerland:

Council conclusions on EU relations with EFTA countries; 3060th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting Brussels, 14 December 2010

There are a number of issues the GAC wanted to comment on, and the EU seems set to drive a bargain (paragraphs 37 to 50):

SWISS CONFEDERATION

37. Relations between the EU and Switzerland are good, intensive and broad. Situated in the very heart of the European territory, Switzerland is one of the EU's major trading and investment partners and EU and Swiss economies are closely interlinked. In the past two years, relations have intensified even further.

38. In this context, the Council welcomes in particular the full participation of Switzerland in the Schengen area, as well as the extension of the Free Movement of Persons Agreement to Bulgaria and Romania. It congratulates Switzerland on the breakthrough of the Gotthard base tunnel, an important step in the realization of this impressive infrastructure project, which will contribute significantly to the development of efficient and environmentally sustainable transport in Europe.

39. The Council welcomes the existing cooperation with Switzerland in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy, in particular in civilian crisis management operations, and stands ready to further strengthen cooperation in this area. It pays careful attention to the Swiss interest in holding a formal political dialogue and wishes to express its similar aim to augment our cooperation and explore together the appropriate format.

40. EU-Switzerland relations include a contribution to reduce economic and social disparities in the EU. The EU believes that such support contributes to enriching overall relations between the parties and reinforces mutual solidarity. The Council is therefore confident that Switzerland's contribution will continue in the future, on the basis of the review of the existing mechanisms.

41. Following Switzerland’s rejection of the EEA in 1992, the EU and Switzerland decided to deepen their relations through the conclusion of agreements in chosen sectors. The Council takes note of the European Policy Report of the Swiss Federal Council of September 2010, reaffirming this choice.

42. The Council notes that this sectorial approach has allowed closer cooperation in a few areas of mutual interest but has turned in the course of the years into a highly complex set of multiple agreements. Due to a lack of efficient arrangements for the take-over of new EU acquis including ECJ case-law, and for ensuring the supervision and enforcement of the existing agreements, this approach does not ensure the necessary homogeneity in the parts of the internal market and of the EU policies in which Switzerland participates. This has resulted in legal uncertainty for authorities, operators and individual citizens.

43. In this context, the Council is concerned by an incoherent application of certain agreements and the introduction by Switzerland of subsequent legislative measures and practices incompatible with those agreements, in particular the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons. The Council calls upon Switzerland to abrogate such restrictions (for instance, the obligation in force in Switzerland to provide prior notification with an 8-day waiting period) and to refrain from adopting new measures incompatible with the Agreement.

44. The Council remains very concerned regarding certain cantonal company tax regimes of Switzerland creating an unacceptable distortion of competition, and reaffirms its position on this matter. It regrets that the lengthy dialogue on this issue has not yet led to an abolition of the state aid aspects of these regimes. The Council reiterates its call on Switzerland to abolish these tax incentives and to avoid taking internal measures, such as certain aspects of the New Swiss Regional Policy, which would be incompatible with the Agreement and may have the effect of distorting competition between EU border regions and Switzerland. Other difficulties in the implementation of Protocol II of the Free Trade Agreement and in the application of the Agreement on Trade in Agricultural Products remain a matter of concern.

45. With regard to harmful business tax practices, the Council encourages Switzerland to continue discussions with the EU on the application of the principles and criteria of the EU Code of Conduct on business taxation.

46. Concerning the taxation of savings, the Council welcomes the readiness of Switzerland to consider an extension of the scope of the savings taxation agreement, once the EU has finalised its work on the revision of the savings taxation directive.

47. Regarding cooperation and information exchange in tax matters and the fight against fraud and evasion in tax matters, the Council welcomes the commitment taken by Switzerland in spring 2009 to implement OECD standards on transparency and tax information exchange. It expects a quick and consistent implementation of these standards in the relationship between Switzerland and the EU and all its Member States.

48. In full respect of the Swiss sovereignty and choices, the Council has come to the conclusion that while the present system of bilateral agreements has worked well in the past, the key challenge for the coming years will be to go beyond that system, which has become complex and unwieldy to manage and has clearly reached its limits. As a consequence, horizontal issues related to the dynamic adaptation of agreements to the evolving acquis, the homogeneous interpretation of the agreements, an independent surveillance and judicial enforcement mechanisms and a dispute settlement mechanism need to be reflected in EU-Switzerland agreements.

49. In addition to making the existing agreements more efficient and solving the outstanding problems in their implementation, the Council recognises that cooperation should be developed in certain areas of mutual interest. However, as regards agreements providing for Switzerland’s participation in individual sectors of the internal market and policies of the EU (a status normally only granted to members of the European Economic Area (EEA)), the Council recalls its conclusions of 2008, that the requirement of a homogeneous and simultaneous application and interpretation of the evolving acquis - an indispensable prerequisite for a functioning internal market - has to be ensured as well as supervision, enforcement and conflict resolution mechanisms. In this context, the Council welcomes the setting-up of an informal Working Group of the Commission and Swiss authorities.

50. Furthermore, the Council reiterates its conclusion of 2008 that in assessing the balance of interests in concluding additional agreements, it will have in mind the need to ensure parallel progress in all areas of cooperation, including those areas, which cause difficulties to EU companies and citizens.

As we see, EU-Swiss relations are more complex than with the EEA EFTA states Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, although in matters of taxation the ambitions of the European Union are expressed in practically identical terms with regard to Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Salud, amor y dinero in 2011 to all my readers!



Ralf Grahn



P.S. If you are active in social media, you should know something about the legal issues involved. One place to look is the Social Media Recht Blog, written (in German) by the attorney Nina Diercks.

EU relations with Switzerland: End of the road for bilateral model

The blog post 'Liechtenstein under EU pressure on taxation' (28 December 2010) only scratched the surface, but let us go into more depth regarding taxation issues when readers and I feel like it.

Instead, we turn to Switzerland, the only European Free Trade Association (EFTA) country not to have joined the internal market through the European Economic Area (EEA).

The General Affairs Council (GAC) recently outlined the relations with the four EFTA countries:

Council conclusions on EU relations with EFTA countries; 3060th GENERAL AFFAIRS Council meeting Brussels, 14 December 2010


Financial contributions

There is a marked contrast between the EU's appreciaiton of the financial contributions by the the three EEA EFTA states Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and the expectations regarding Switzerland (paragraph 2):

2. The Council appreciates the financial contributions of the EFTA countries to the economic and social cohesion in the European Economic Area (EEA). Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland (the "EEA EFTA States") recently committed themselves to a substantial increase of their continued contributions. The EU is looking forward to a constructive dialogue with Switzerland on the review of the current mechanism, expiring in June 2012. The Council hopes that a mutually acceptable solution will be found with the aim of reducing economic and social disparities in the EU.

End of the road for bilateral model

The EU Treaties Office Database records 179 agreements between the European Union and Switzerland.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the model of bilateral treaties is ”kaputt”, but according to the EU the system has reached the end of the road (paragraph 6):

6. Since Switzerland is not a member of the European Economic Area, it has chosen to take a sector-based approach to its agreements in view of a possible long-term rapprochement with the EU. In full respect of the Swiss sovereignty and choices, the Council has come to the conclusion that while the present system of bilateral agreements has worked well in the past, the challenge of the coming years will be to go beyond this complex system, which is creating legal uncertainty and has become unwieldy to manage and has clearly reached its limits. In order to create a sound basis for future relations, mutually acceptable solutions to a number of horizontal issues, set out below, will need to be found.

EU acquis

The European Union wants to guarantee a more level playing-field between businesses through the scope and implementation of the EU acquis (paragraph 7):

7. Though EU relations with the EFTA countries were extended over the years to many areas not covered by the internal market, these relations are mainly based on the progressive integration of the EFTA countries' economies into the EU internal market. In view of the need for a level playing field for all economic operators of the parties concerned and the continued development of internal market relevant acquis, the EU and the EFTA States should ensure homogeneity in the implementation of the acquis and the good functioning of the institutions.

The observations concern all the EFTA countries, but the procedures with the EEA members are more streamlined than with regard to Switzerland.

We look at specific remarks about Switzerland in a later blog post.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Social Europe Journal (SEJ) is an important forum for political cross-border discussion, as presented by themselves: Debating politics in Europe and beyond. - Not to miss, if you are interested in EU level politics.

Switzerland: European Union playing seek

Yesterday we looked at some issues between the European Union and Switzerland, but especially for useful information about where the relationship is going. On this count, the own-initiative resolution from the European Parliament was almost the only thing with real informational value unearthed by a quick search: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them: European Union and Switzerland (20 October 2010).

Almost, I said, because I left the public statements by president Herman Van Rompuy and president José Manuel Barroso to this post.

Herman Van Rompuy

Among older news on the EEAS country page for Switzerland we find what president Van Rompuy uttered in public after meeting the president of Switzerland in July:

Remarks by Herman VAN ROMPUY, President of the European Council, following his meeting with Doris LEUTHARD, President of the Swiss confederation; Brussels, 19 July 2010 PCE 169/10

This is what Van Rompuy told the citizens of the European Union after a ‘very fruitful discussion’:

We cover[ed] a lot of ground today. We examined the state of our bilateral relations. More specifically, we have discussed the perspectives for Switzerland’s European integration policy. We have examined the functioning of our relations based on a set of bilateral agreements (more than 120) that unite us. I've expressed [to] the President the importance for these agreements to work well and to be implemented by both sides properly.

We have also discussed how to improve our relations for the future. The EU is convinced on the need to develop the relations with Switzerland on sound legal and political foundations. The EU Council Conclusions of December 2008 laid down the criteria and conditions which must be fulfilled by future negotiations allowing the participation of Switzerland in our internal market and policies.

Such criteria and conditions refer in particular to the acceptance of the evolution of the acquis and its homogeneous interpretation and application.

I know that an important political debate in this regard is taking place in Switzerland, as well as in [the] EU. I've expressed the EU readiness to explore jointly possible solutions to address these questions.

Besides the commonplaces, Van Rompuy left one interesting clue; not to the mandates for ongoing negotiation processes, but a historical reference to Council conclusions from December 2008.

The obvious reference should be the conclusions of the External Relations Council 8 to 9 December 2008, but we come up empty. We fare no better if we check the GAERC General Affairs press release of 8 December 2008. Perhaps it meant the presidency conclusions from the European Council 11 to 12 December 2008? No luck.

'Switzerland' is mentioned in the context of limited issues by the Ecofin Council, the Epsco configuration and the Agriculture and Fisheries formation during December 2008, but I failed to find anything resembling a reset of EU and Swiss relations in general.

The conclusions from the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) 22 February 2010, available through the EEAS country page news, mentioned Lybia’s conflict with Switzerland and the participation of Switzerland in the Media 2007 programme.

I decided not to trawl through the whole ocean of Council documents in order to find something of value about the future relationship between the European Union and Switzerland.

I think I did enough to reach the following conclusion: The EEAS and Council websites are not particularly helpful. Naturally, there are guidelines and mandates, as well as minute records of how the negotiations are going, but not readily accessible.

José Manuel Barroso

Let us look, instead, how matters have advanced in three months. In a speech in Geneva, Commission president José Manuel Barroso gave some indications of what the European Union wishes for the future (in French): Déclaration du Président Barroso au point de presse avec la Conseillère fédérale suisse Micheline Calmy-Rey (14 October 2010, SPEECH/10/558).

We see the will to streamline procedures, and to improve the adoption and application of EU legislation, but how the changes should be brought about is expressed in public with diplomatic lack of precision:

J’ai surtout encouragé l’ouverture continue de la Suisse pour améliorer l’encadrement institutionnel de nos relations.

J’ai signalé à Mme Calmy-Rey l'importance de rendre nos relations et surtout l'application du droit plus dynamiques et plus uniformes pour une meilleure sécurité juridique. Ceci est dans l'intérêt de nos citoyens et de nos entreprises.

Notamment nous devons progresser sur les aspects horizontaux et institutionnels suivants:
• adoption de nouveau acquis et sa mise à jour dynamique
• mise en œuvre uniforme et harmonieuse; surveillance de l'application de l'acquis dans un cadre institutionnel
• adoption de la jurisprudence européenne
• règlement des différends

C'est sur ces questions que nous devons travailler .C'est essentiel pour permettre aux négociations en cours de progresser.

Le marché intérieur est un ensemble cohérent qui ne peut pas être fractionné. Une participation accrue à notre marché intérieur et à nos politiques demande donc l’acceptation par la Suisse de nos règles communes.

Evidemment, ceci doit se faire dans le respect de la souveraineté du peuple suisse. Nous sommes prêts à explorer comment il est possible de réconcilier nos règles du jeu avec la souveraineté suisse et nous pensons que c'est possible, avec imagination, de trouver cette solution.

Barroso’s public comments itemise the issues concerning the adoption of the EU body of (new) law (acquis) and its homogeneous interpretation and application, but they bring little new to light, when we compare them with what Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council had said three months earlier, in July 2010.

Comment

Switzerland is surrounded by the European Union, so good and ordered relations are a must, or at least highly desirable for both sides. But the EU has hinted that it is tired of the laborious processes entailed by negotiating one bilateral agreement at a time and then administering and adapting each of the 120 treaties bilaterally every time a legal act is amended or the CJEU has given a new interpretation.

However the information on offer from the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Council of the European Union is neither easily accessible nor particularly illuminating, given the importance of the EU-Swiss relations. The European Union is seeking something, but what exactly?

The gap between existing knowledge and readily accessible quality facts is plainly too wide. The public has been left blindfolded.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. Paolo Maria Grossholz runs a special kind of blog, called A 12 Stelle (evoking the twelve stars of Europe). It is listed on blogger, but instead of traditional blog posts written by the author it functions by highlighting and linking to practically all press releases from the EU institutions which are of interest to enterprises. For the Milan based blogger Italian is the primary language, but otherwise the English version is chosen. In the end, it works like a useful news ticker for corporations and SMEs.

Since I mentioned Bloggingportal.eu the last time, the multilingual aggregator for Euroblogs has added one to its numbers. There are now 676 blogs related to European Union and Council of Europe affairs listed. There is still a need for a few voluntary editors to tag blog posts according to subject. Join the team!

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them: European Union and Switzerland

The relations between landlocked Switzerland and the surrounding European Union are special in many respects. Trade, transport, free movement including migration and cross-border work, banking (secrecy) and tax (evasion) are highly visible ingredients. Here are a few background notes in the form of earlier blog posts and an evaluation of what the EU institutions currently offer interested businesses and citizens.

Grahnlaw blog posts

Internal market: Switzerland at the heart of Europe? (2 February 2010)

Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA): EFTA member Switzerland outside EEA and EU (3 February 2010).

Switzerland has previously rejected membership in the European Union (EU) as well as in the European Economic Area (EEA), which extends the internal market to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Switzerland has concluded a host of bilateral agreements with the EU: EU and Switzerland: Bilateral treaties and challenges (5 February 2010).

Tax matters for Switzerland and the European Union (6 February 2010)

Hot tax row between Germany and Switzerland (7 February 2010)

EU against tax fraud (8 February 2010)

EEAS

Switzerland is not found among the top items on the front page of the European External Action Service (EEAS) this morning.

The EEAS pages are clear and easy to navigate. It is easy to find the country page for Switzerland, with a few basic facts and links to further sources.

The EU delegation for Switzerland and Liechtenstein in Bern offers additional information about the bilateral relations, in German, French and Italian.

The central EEAS pages are short on information about the important Schengen agreement, implemented since December 2008 (admittedly home affairs). They are also vague with regard to political perspectives and aspirations for the future relationship generally, although there are links to two presidential public appearances during the last months, one by Herman Van Rompuy and the latest one by José Manuel Barroso.

Bilateral treaties

Formally, the Treaties Office of the EU today lists 179 bilateral treaties with Switzerland, although in current discussions about 120 treaties is often mentioned as the existing (real) number.

If we look at fresh Council document references, matters concerning Schengen implementation seem to be the run of the mill cooperation issues between EU and Swiss officials (as well as with those from Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein).

More informative from a general point of view is the European Parliament resolution of 7 September 2010 on EEA-Switzerland: Obstacles with regard to the full implementation of the internal market P7_TA-PROV(2010)0300. It is based on an own-initiative report, procedure file INI/2009/2176.

Comment

My search was not exhaustive or methodical enough to unearth everything, but an attempt to find materials readily available to assess were the relations are heading. Despite the Barroso and Van Rompuy speeches I did not go into in this blog post, with regard to my objective the European Parliament came out on top, because it actually discusses problems and challenges from an important and a fairly broad perspective: trade and the free movement of services and persons (internal market).


Ralf Grahn


P.S. Presseurop is an important resource for people interested in European affairs. It presents itself in the following manner:

Presseurop.eu is a Paris based news website publishing a daily selection of articles chosen from more than 200 international news titles, then translated into ten languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Czech.

The multilingual blog aggregator Bloggingportal.eu brings European online discussions to a screen in front of you, from 675 EU related blogs. A few more voluntary editors are needed for tagging and selecting posts from the listed Euroblogs.

Hot tax row between Germany and Switzerland

Here are only a few samples of what has become front page news in Germany, generating hundreds of newspaper articles. Deutsche Welle reports that a number of offers have been made to German authorities on Swiss banking data, although buying stolen data is also politically controversial in Germany: Luft für Steuersünder wird dünner (6 February 2010). Sueddeutsche.de basically tells the same story, adding a few details: Steuerdaten – jetzt prüft auch Bayern (7 February 2010).



According to Welt Online the meagre public information about stolen bank data was sufficient to start a wave of self-incriminatory reports to German tax authorities. About 50 tax evaders had already given themselves in: Verwirrspiel mit System (7 February 2010).


If the story is big in Germany, in Switzerland the breach of the sacred banking secrecy and the potential loss of banking business for wealthy clients has reached almost existential proportions. On 6 and 7 February NZZ Online was practically dominated by different aspects of the issue:

Wiederstand gegen Handel mit gestohlenen Daten regt sich

Auch bayerische Behörden auf der Spur von Steuersündern

Neue CD mit Bankdaten aufgetaucht

„Wir müssen den Mut haben, solchen Fragen jetzt zu stellen“(interesting interview with Hans-Rudolf Merz, Minister of Finance, weighing Switzerland’s responses to the mounting pressure: OECD double taxation agreements; cost of market access versus defiance of EU norms)

„Bern hat den Kopf verloren“ (Konrad Hummler, President of Swiss Private Bankers‘ Association accuses the government of losing ist head)

Wolfgang Schäuble: „Das Bankgeheimnis ist am Ende“ (German Finance Minister ringing the death knell of banking secrecy)

„ Drakonische Strafen – Gewalttäter sind besser dran als Steuersünder (draconic justice for tax fraudsters in Germany – worse than for violent robbers)

Nun droht ein Banksterben (the less than rosy future of a banking sector dependent on market access and business globally)




Ralf Grahn







P.S. If the EU member states continue to pursue their narrow interests in foreign, security and defence policies, the face marginalisation in global affairs.

Global Europe blog and the accompanying website offer a daily summary of interesting articles and additional materials in English on European foreign affairs.

The Global Europe blog is listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, which has now grown to 532 great Euroblogs.

Bloggingportal.eu is your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on EU affairs, i.a. politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.

At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss in EU law and European Union politics Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg. The main themes at this point in time include the European Digital Agenda with data protection and intellectual property, the internal market and the free movement of persons, as well as the important relations between the EU and Switzerland.

Tax matters for Switzerland and the European Union

The basic positions on tax could hardly be more different: virtuous tax competition or criminal tax fraud?




The official Swiss view is that tax competition is healthy. Not only do federalism and [direct] democracy promote sound public finances, but they also enhance trust between citizens and the state, said then President of the Confederation (Bundespräsident) Hans-Rudolf Merz in a lyrical speech 2 November 2009: Die Schweiz im internationalen Steuerwettbewerb.



European Union



The Communication by the European Commission Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters; Brussels, 28.4.2009 COM(2009) 201 final takes almost the contrary position, calling for urgent action to stem tax fraud and evasion through coordinated action:

The European Union and its Member States face serious challenges in addressing the current economic and financial crisis. The crisis has exacerbated concerns about the sustainability of tax systems in the face of globalisation. The promotion of good governance in the tax area on as broad a geographical basis as possible is now recognised to be the appropriate way of addressing these concerns. It balances the tax sovereignty of individual countries with the legitimate protection of tax revenues.

Accordingly, the EU and its partners have a strong common interest at this time in promoting tax cooperation and common standards on as wide a geographical basis as possible. The time is now right for Member States and third countries to work together and to encourage and support the move that has now started towards a broader acceptance of international standards of tax co-operation

This Communication presents for consideration a series of steps to promote good governance in the tax area, entailing action both within and outside the EU and both at EU and at individual Member State levels. ---

A few days ago, in the European Parliament, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs overwhelmingly voted on a report (A7-0007/2010) on promoting good governance in tax matters, echoing calls for resolute action. (Procedure (2009/2174(INI)); rapporteur: Leonardo Domenici).




The third major political EU institution is the Council. In the pipeline is a draft Council decision (document 16308/09; only partially declassified 6 January 2010) to authorise the Commission to open negotiations between the EU and its member states with the Swiss Confederation to combat direct tax fraud and direct tax evasion and to ensure administrative cooperation through exchange of information on tax matters. (Negotiations are also foreseen with Andorra, Monaco and San Marino.)



Switzerland and Germany


There are also bilateral issues between individual EU member states and Switzerland. The most visible right now is the potential circumvention of the legendary Swiss banking secrecy contemplated by Germany through buying stolen bank data.



In the press release Federal Council takes decision on further course of action concerning Germany (3 February 2010), the Swiss executive stated that it is not willing to provide administrative assistance to Germany based on stolen bank data, but it is willing to continue negotiations on a new double taxation agreement (DTA), in accordance with the OECD Model Tax Convention.




The Swiss decision comes as a reaction to German reports. According to Deutsche Welle the German government is likely to buy stolen bank data on possible tax evaders: Germany willing to pay for secret Swiss bank data (1 February 2010).



As we see, there are contentious issues between the European Union and its member states, on the one hand, and Switzerland, on the other hand.







Ralf Grahn







P.S. The BBC’s Europe editor Gavin Hewitt writes a blog, which presents European politics to readers in Britain and worldwide.

Gavin Hewitt's Europe is listed on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, which has now grown to 532 great Euroblogs.

Bloggingportal.eu is your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on EU affairs, i.a. politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.

At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss European issues, including the relations between the EU and Switzerland, in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

EU and Switzerland: Bilateral treaties and challenges

Since Switzerland is outside the European Union (EU) as well as the European Economic Area (EEA), the relations have been developed mainly on the basis of bilateral agreements. The Treaties Office of the European Commission’s DG External Relations offers access to the existing EU-Switzerland treaties, bilateral and multilateral, 175 in all.




DG Trade presents an overview of trade with Switzerland, noting that:

Switzerland's main trading partner is the EU. On the other hand, Switzerland is currently the fourth largest trading partner of the EU. Trade figures in 2008 show €80 billion in imports and €97.6 billion in exports. In terms of imports, Switzerland was the EU's 5th most important trading partner in 2008, after the US, China, Russia and Norway. Regarding exports, Switzerland was the 3rd after the US and Russia in the same period.

The presentation contains on overview of how the agreements have developed, including the Bilateral I package (in force from June 2002) and the Bilateral II package (signed in October 2004).




Among the 130 Commission Delegations and Offices, the European Union has a Delegation in Berne, Switzerland (for Liechtenstein as well). The New Year’s greeting (available in German, French and Italian) by the Head of Delegation Michael Reiterer is refreshingly free from empty phrases. Instead Reiterer outlines the macro level challenges ahead and digs into new areas of cooperation as well as unresolved issues on the table, such as tax fraud and evasion.




More information about the history of cooperation and ongoing issues is offered on the web page (here the German version) Die EU und die Schweiz and further topical links:


Agrarfreihandel


On trade in agricultural goods:

Ein allfälliges Abkommen im Agrar- und Lebensmittelbereich (FHAL) liegt im beiderseitigen Interesse der EU und der Schweiz.


Beihilfendiskussion


State aid:

Die Europäische Kommission hat im Februar 2007 eine Beihilfenentscheidung getroffen. Die EU hat eine Beihilfenentscheidung getroffen, was nicht ausreichend zur Kenntnis genommen wird, weshalb auch von "Steuerstreit" gesprochen wird.


Elektrizität


Electricity:

Ein Elektrizitätsabkommen zur Sicherung der Energieversorgung, zur Regelung des Transits und zur Teilnahme der Schweiz am europäischen Elekrtizitätsbinnenmarkt liegt im beidseitigen Interesse der EU und der Schweiz.


Erweiterungsbeitrag


Participation in cohesion policy costs:

Die Kohäsionspolitik der Europäischen Union hat zum Ziel, die Unterschiede im wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungsstand der europäischen Regionen zu verringern. Damit soll der wirtschaftliche und soziale Zusammenhalt innerhalb der EU verstärkt werden. Die Schweiz profitiert dank ihrer bilateralen Abkommen, welche sie mit der EU abgeschlossen hat, direkt von jeder Erweiterung der Union, weshalb die EU die Schweizer Behörden einlud, einen Beitrag an die europäische Kohäsion zu leisten.


Personenfreizügigkeit


Free movement of persons:

Personenfreizügigkeit zwischen der Schweiz und der EU.


Schengen


Cooperation in the Schengen area:

Im Rahmen der Schengen Zusammenarbeit wird der Reiseverkehr erleichtert, indem die systematischen Personenkontrollen an den gemeinsamen Grenzen zwischen den Schengen-Staaten aufgehoben werden.


Zinsbesteuerung


Taxation of savings income:

Die Richtlinie regelt die Besteuerung von Zinserträgen, welche an natürliche Personen in einem EU-Mitgliedstaat ausserhalb ihres eigenen Wohnsitzstaates gezahlt werden.


Zollsicherheit


Customs security cooperation:

Aus Sicherheitsgründen sind Wirtschaftsteilnehmer verpflichtet, die Zollbehörden im voraus über Waren zu informieren, die in das Zollgebiet der EU ein- oder aus diesem ausgeführt werden. Das betrifft zu einem grossen Teil auch die Schweiz.






Ralf Grahn








P.S. A federal system is democratic and aims at resolving issues at the right level. The Federal Union Blog argues for federalist solutions in Britain, Europe and the world.

The Federal Union Blog is listed among 522 great Euroblogs (at the latest count) on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.

At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss European issues, including the relations between the EU and Switzerland, in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

EFTA member Switzerland outside EEA and EU

The relationship between Switzerland and the European Union is of interest to governments, businesses and residents, including expats.


Yesterday, in the Grahnlaw blog post Internal market: Switzerland at the heart of Europe? we highlighted the briefing paper commissioned by the European Parliament on the complex relationship between the European Union and Switzerland with regard to the internal market:



Christa Tobler, Jeroen Hardenbol & Balázs Mellár: Internal Market beyond the EU: EEA and Switzerland (PE 429.993; January 2010; 65 pages).

In this blog post we present references to some basic materials on Switzerland’s relations with the rest of Europe.



Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), together with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. However, unlike the three others, Switzerland is not a part of the European Economic Area (EEA).



For a fairly updated general presentation of EFTA, see This is EFTA 2009 (January 2009; 36 pages).



The latest annual update is the 48th Annual Report of the European Free Trade Association 2008 (March 2009; 52 pages).



In English and with further links, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO offers general information about EFTA, the European Policy of Switzerland and Bilateral Agreements Switzerland – European Union.



Through the web page Bilateral agreements Switzerland-EU you can access a brochure from August 2009 with further information: Bilateral agreements Switzerland-EU (44 pages)



There is also a page with links to Other files Switzerland-EU.




For a more political Swiss view on why Switzerland remains outside both the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), you can read the article by Werner Wüthrich: The Future Belongs to Lean Organizations like EFTA (Current Concerns No 1, January 2010).




Ralf Grahn







P.S. Sooner or later, I believe, the European Union has to become more openly and directly party political in order to be understood and approved by EU citizens.

Heralding this future of active citizens are the bilingual mirror blogs by a French PES activist: Eurosocialist in English and Eurosocialiste in French. Her motto is: A socialist view on Europe, a European view on socialism.

Eurosocialist/Eurosocialiste are listed among 522 great Euroblogs (at the latest count) on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs, i.a. politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.

At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.

By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

Internal market: Switzerland at the heart of Europe?

German government frets over morality of paying tax informer, reports Deutsche Welle (2 February 2010). Should Germany pay 2.5 million euros to buy stolen bank data of 1,500 people suspected of tax evasion?



Geographically Switzerland is at the heart of Europe, with four EU neighbours even the European Union, but the Swiss Confederation of 7.7 million inhabitants is an exception in its relations with the European Union. It is an EFTA member, but (formally) not even a part of the European Economic Area (EEA). The news item above reminded us of long-standing unresolved issues between the Swiss and the EU member states.



The European Parliament has commissioned a study on the complex bilateral relationship between the European Union and Switzerland with regard to the internal market:

Christa Tobler, Jeroen Hardenbol & Balázs Mellár: Internal Market beyond the EU: EEA and Switzerland (PE 429.993; January 2010; 65 pages).



In this post we are content to indicate the contents, but I expect to return to the issues in blog posts on my euroblogs in English, Finnish and Swedish:


CONTENTS
Contents 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6

1. INTRODUCTION 8

2. EU RELATIONS WITH SWITZERLAND AND THE EEA STATES 10
2.1. Relevant agreements and the existing legal framework between Switzerland and the EU 10
2.2. EU-EEA relations 12

3. THE FUNCTIONING OF AN EXTENDED INTERNAL MARKET WITH SWITZERLAND 15
3.1. The material scope of bilateral law 15
3.1.1. Free movement of goods 15
3.1.2. Free movement of persons 16
3.1.3. Free movement of services 17
3.1.4. Free movement of capital 17
3.2. The temporal scope of bilateral law 18
3.2.1. The status of primary and secondary law 18
3.2.2. Temporal limits in relation to the interpretation of bilateral law 19
3.2.3. Entry into force of the Agreement on the free movement of persons in relation to the EU Member States that joined the Union in 2004 and 2007 21
3.3. The substantive meaning of free movement 22
3.3.1. General remarks 22
3.3.2. Free movement of goods under the FTA 22
3.3.3. Free movement of persons and services under the FMPA 24
3.4. Enforcement 29

4. THE FUNCTIONING OF AN EXTENDED INTERNAL MARKET WITH THE EEA STATES 30

5. AN EXTENDED INTERNAL MARKET – CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS 32
5.1. The EEA and Switzerland: Two different models of integration 32
5.2. The future EU relations with Switzerland 32
5.2.1. Challenges 32
5.2.2. An outlook on Swiss-EU policy 36
5.3. The future EU relations with the EEA States 39
5.3.1. Challenges 39

6. CONCLUSIONS 41
6.1. The EU and Switzerland: A legal framework of bilateral agreements 41
6.2. The EU and the EEA EFTA Countries: A dynamic system of EU law incorporation 42
6.3. The impact of the Lisbon Treaty 43

7. RECOMMENDATIONS 44

BIBLIOGRAPHY 46

Annexes 49
Annex I. List of Interviewees 49
Annex II: Selected publications by Prof. Dr. Christa Tobler 50
Annex III. Overview of EU - Swiss bilateral agreements 52
Annex IV. Comparison between EU law, EEA law and bilateral law 53
Annex V: The Internal Market charts 54





Ralf Grahn







P.S. Cross-border communication is a necessity in the European Union and beyond, with scrutiny by active citizens. At the same time Euroblogs are an agreeable way to brush up one’s skills in foreign languages.

European Union Law in English and its sister blog in Bulgarian are written by the lawyer Vihar Georgiev, who serves his readers with quick updates on new legal acts, decisions and other developments in EU law.

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By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.

Minaret-banning Switzerland chairing the Council of Europe

Twittering Julien Frisch was the first to make me aware of the matter, and later I saw Carl Bildt mention it on his blog, Alla dessa dagar. I decided to take a look at the web pages of the Council of Europe:

Switzerland has taken over the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, the principal decision-making body of the Council of Europe, for a period of 6 months. From 18 November 2009 to 11 May 2010, Switzerland will focus on 3 main areas: protection of human rights and the primacy of law, strengthening of democratic institutions, and increasing the transparency and the effectiveness of the Council of Europe.

The priorities of the Swiss chairmanship are introduced in the following terms:

Switzerland attaches paramount importance to respect for the values underlying the European identity. Continuing the previous Chairmanships’ efforts, Switzerland will maintain the emphasis on respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, identified at the Warsaw Summit in 2005 as the Council of Europe’s core objective.

It must be pretty embarrassing for representatives of the Swiss government to chair the decision-making body of the CoE, when the government’s good intentions have been disavowed by its own people.

The other member states may think twice when they hear suggestions along these lines:

Switzerland, a country which possesses a long experience of participatory democracy, undertakes to strengthen democratic structures for citizen participation.

A pretty helvetic confederation, if I may say so.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 487 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page, or concentrate on the editors’ choices on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.

Ethics and law of Swiss minaret ban

First, a few thoughts on how we should try to approach difficult questions concerning freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The general understanding in Europe has been that there are universal rights. In Europe the secular state does its best to guarantee that the rights of all are respected, as long as they do not harm the freedom of others to practice their beliefs. Outside Europe we try to promote human rights.

The Council of Europe and the European Union are built on the premises of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Membership requires respect for fundamental rights.

Switzerland is still a member of the Council of Europe, party to the European Convention on Human Rights and subject to the European Court of Human Rights. The Swiss can contravene the European Convention only by renouncing their membership.

The exact scope for different rights is a difficult issue, where we need discussion at European level to find satisfactory solutions. It is not easy, and we will probably see trial and error.

If we want to find principles applicable to all on issues concerning religious symbols (headscarves or crucifixes in secular state schools, for instance), we have to look towards ethical rules:

The Golden Rule, reciprocity, Kant’s categorical imperative.


Did the Swiss ban church towers and belfries as well? If not, then their vote is discriminatory.


Legal analysis

Here are a few examples of lawyers who have analysed the Swiss minaret ban on their blogs:



Actualités du droit, Gilles Devers: Minarets: C’est illégal, et la Suisse devra renoncer (30 November 2009)



Verfassungsblog, Max Steinbeis: Schweiz: Diktatur der Mehrheit (30 November 2009)




European Union Law, Vihar Georgiev: The Swiss Ban on Minarets: Legal implications (30 November 2009)


***


The blogs discuss the matters from different angles (Swiss, European and international law; referendums and minority rights), but their conclusions are clear. There is a contradiction between the Swiss referendum result and the international obligations of Switzerland.

Let the corrective mechanisms take over. They can at least right the wrong in a legal sense, although they can do little to improve the image of Switzerland and the Swiss.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 487 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page, or concentrate on the editors’ choices on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.

Swiss No to minarets ─Yes to what?

Among eurobloggers at least Julien Frisch and Gulf Stream Blues have already reacted clearly against the Swiss referendum banning minarets. Erkan’s Field Diary says it at least as forcefully in a blog post he has promised to update soon: In Switzerland, Fascism seems to be getting ground…

I wrote a comment on Julien’s blog, but thought that I might post it on Grahnlaw as well:

Julien,

I agree with much of what you say. This is a sad day for Europe, of which Switzerland is a part, although somewhat apart.

A cynical campaign to sow discord has "succeeded" to do that. When we think of the disproportionate reactions to an individual Danish cartoonist and a newspaper acting within the rules of free speech, this manifestation of the will of a nation will cause feelings of humiliation and anger, easy to exploit for hate-preachers, putting Swiss diplomatic missions, firms and expats at risk (and perhaps others).

This is once again an example of the effects of referendums. Women's suffrage at the federal level was approved only in 1971 in Switzerland.

Representative democracy is to a large extent majority rule, but combined with provisions for the protection of freedoms (unalienable rights, respect for human dignity) it can help build more tolerant societies.

As you say, these questions are difficult:

I would not be comfortable with muezzins calling the faithful to prayer six times a day if using loudspeakers to overpower everything else in the vicinity, but I do not mind church bells ringing at times.

I feel split about crucifixes in secular state schools; should they be abolished through the courts, or should we tolerate different customs?

How about clothing and other symbols? Can you study, work and interact as a free citizen, if you wear a burqa? Can anyone condone genital mutilation?

Somehow we need to look for answers together, at a European level, learning from mistakes, but somehow we should preserve a sense of humanity in our efforts.

Prejudices and referendums are a lethal combination. The Swiss have shown us that.

***

In Europe as a whole and in the European Union, we cannot turn the clock back. Cultural diversity and different beliefs need to be protected, as long as they cause no real harm to the rights of others. These difficult issues are common concerns, and we need to discuss them at European level.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Do you find EUSSR myths fascinating? Are we EU citizens worth a better European Union? Educate yourself! There are already 487 Euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu. You can access all the posts on the Posts page, or concentrate on the editors’ choices on the Home page. On most of the blogs you can comment and discuss our common European future.