Swiss justice minister advocates for greater sovereignty through bilateral agreements

Justice Minister Beat Jans believes that Switzerland's sovereignty and ability to act will be strengthened by potential new bilateral agreements with the European Union (EU). In a networked world, sovereignty can be enhanced by regulating relations with important partners, he wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) commentary on Tuesday. +Sign up to get the most important news from Switzerland directly in your inbox Binding rules agreed upon and relied upon in extraordinary situations are crucial, stated the Federal Councillor in a guest commentary in the NZZ. With two partners of unequal size, such rules are almost existential for the smaller one. The larger partner can "also assert its interests with power," said Jans. Switzerland has experienced the effects of such "power play" first-hand: the EU's measures against the Swiss stock exchange, the Swiss medical technology centre and Swiss research are a bitter memory. +Switzerland and EU want to negotiate, but optimism is limited ...