Swiss MPs have voted to withdraw the country’s long-standing — and largely forgotten — application to join the EU in a symbolic gesture prompted by a deepening row about migration.
The Swiss national council, the lower house of the federal assembly, approved a motion by the right-wing Swiss People’s party (SVP) to withdraw the application. It was approved with 126 of the 200 deputies voting in favour.
Lukas Reimann, the SVP deputy who proposed the move, said that it was “high time” to withdraw the application, with talks due on implementing immigration curbs. It comes after a referendum passed by 50.3 per cent of voters in 2014 to impose limits on migration from the EU, in defiance of an agreement in 2002 to accept the free movement of people.
Talks on resolving the dispute with Brussels have been postponed during the British referendum campaign.
One possible solution being discussed in Switzerland is a safeguard clause under which a limit on EU workers would apply in the following year if immigration reached a certain threshold. This could go further than the “emergency brake” that David Cameron negotiated on limiting benefits for EU workers. “In all likelihood, we will go to parliament with a safeguard clause to be implemented unilaterally,” Didier Burkhalter, the foreign minister, said.
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He added that the country’s EU application had been void since 1992, after Swiss voters rejected membership of the European Economic Area. He labelled this week’s motion as unnecessary, saying that Switzerland was not on the EU’s list of official candidates and was considered by the EU to be an “independent, sovereign nation”.
