Outgoing EU Ambassador on the fate of the framework agreement

Departing European Union Ambassador Michael Matthiessen explains why the EU stands by the free movement of people principle. In an interview in the German-language newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Matthiessen, who is heading back to Brussels after four years, reflected on the challenges of finalising a framework agreement between the two parties. Without the framework agreement, the bilateral path is not sustainable in the long-term said Matthiessen. “A framework agreement would make it possible to consolidate the existing agreements, but also to exploit the potential in new fields, such as electricity or digitization.” One of the main areas of disagreement in the current draft concerns a labour accord that allows unrestricted access to each other’s labour markets. On September 27, the Swiss people will vote on an initiative put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to suspend the accord on the free movement of people and for Switzerland to take over full control of its...