Bern will «defend itself» against immigration from EU countries
With an explanation of the steps to be taken by the Swiss leadership in fulfillment of the will of the people expressed in the referendum of February 9, 2014, on December 5, 2015 at a press conference in Bern, the President of Switzerland, Minister of Justice and Police responsible for migration issues, Simonetta Sommaruga, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Confederation, Didier Burkhalter, spoke.
They said that they consider a mechanism to be formulated within the framework of the so-called «protective clause» (Schutzklausel) as an acceptable and adequate form of implementing the decisions of that referendum. The principle underlying it is very simple: immigration to Switzerland will continue, but not indefinitely.
As soon as the flow of people wishing to move to the Confederation reaches a certain limit (not predetermined but flexibly calculated depending on the current economic situation), restrictive measures protecting the country's labor market should automatically start working. Hence the term «protective clause».
If immigration does not weaken and continues to grow, then there must come a time when the influx of labor from abroad will be stopped completely. As Simonetta Sommaruga and Didier Burkhalter explained, this mechanism will be incorporated by Switzerland into the overall set of legal documents regulating the order of cooperation between Bern and Brussels in the area of migration, and it would be desirable to do this in full agreement with the European Union.
If the EU does not agree to such a step, then Switzerland will introduce the «protective clause» unilaterally. For her part, Simonetta Sommaruga expressed cautious optimism, emphasizing that, most likely, the European Union would have nothing against such a format for implementing the «Legislative Initiative against Mass Immigration».
As she further said, «it is too early to talk about any breakthrough,» primarily because of the sharply negative position of London, which insisted and continues to insist on maintaining the regime of unrestricted freedom of movement of people, capital, goods and services between Switzerland and the EU. The Swiss president admitted that «it was clear to us from the very beginning that negotiations with the European Union would be very difficult, especially given the developments in the UK, but on the whole there is a positive political will on the EU's side.»
Both ministers also recalled that the «protective clause» is nothing entirely new. In the documents defining the implementation of the principle of freedom of movement between the EU and Switzerland, such a clause has existed from the very beginning, acting as a kind of safety fuse that is «normally in the open position.» This fuse should only trip if the volumes of immigration clearly exceed reasonable limits. Therefore, now we are talking only about a «purely technical solution» that clarifies and improves existing mechanisms designed to protect the social systems of the EU and Switzerland from excessive overload and pressure.
«Therefore, we came to the conclusion that there is a technical solution (to this problem) fully compatible both with the current Swiss-European Agreement on Freedom of Movement and with the provisions of the Swiss Federal Constitution,» stressed S. Sommaruga. Having Brussels' agreement with such an option «would be the best way out for the Federal Council (government). On the other hand, the cabinet is bound by time obligations provided for in the text of the «Legislative Initiative against Mass Immigration,» that is, the government has a precise deadline for implementing its provisions. And therefore, right now it is forced to prepare a version of introducing the «protective clause» unilaterally, which will only be needed in case Bern and Brussels do not reach agreement and consensus in this area within the remaining time.»
As Simonetta Sommaruga emphatically stressed several times, the «protective clause» is in no way a violation of the current Swiss-European agreement on freedom of movement. A violation would only occur if Switzerland actually clearly set a numerical limit or maximum quotas on the number of labor migrants entitled to come to Switzerland for work and residence.
Instead, the president of Switzerland clarified, the «protective clause» principle will have to work not in conjunction with precise immigration limits (the conservative Swiss People's Party, which actually launched the «anti-immigration legislative initiative,» demands, for example, to strictly limit the influx of migrants to 40,000 per year), but in combination with its own additional economic, social and political measures aimed at reducing the economy's need for foreign labor through, for example, more effective use of the labor potential of people over 50 and women.
This also includes the so-called «flanking measures» designed to block wage dumping. «The protective clause alone cannot and should not be a panacea for all problems related to labor and employment. There are no simple answers to such complex questions,» reminded Simonetta Sommaruga.
The response from the EU was immediate. «We will continue the consultation process with Switzerland in order to find a mutually acceptable solution,» said a European Commission representative in response to a query from the Swissinfo.ch portal. «This is a very complex issue and finding a solution will not be easy, but we will continue contacts within the framework of the agreements reached on December 1, 2015 by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and President of Switzerland Simonetta Sommaruga.»
As further indicated, J.-C. Juncker and S. Sommaruga will likely hold an additional round of personal consultations before the end of this year, although the date of this meeting has not yet been determined. Previously, the European Union has constantly emphasized that any restrictions on the freedom of movement of citizens between the EU and Switzerland are unacceptable to it, reminding that the agreements of the first package of "bilateral agreements" regulating cooperation between Bern and Brussels only work together. If one of them is violated, then, following the "domino" principle, all other agreements in the package cease to apply.
Chairman of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) Toni Brunner believes that after the press conference of the ministers, "we are in the same place where we were two years ago. The concept of a 'protective clause' presented in Bern is a theoretical concept that provides no satisfactory answers to the question of how Switzerland could actually limit immigration."
The Swiss Social Democrats (SP) also see nothing positive in the proposed concept, considering it a "dummy", a kind of political "placebo", intended to "calm the people" with symbolic measures. At the same time, the real problems facing Swiss industry, which actually prompted the people to agree to the measures set out in the "anti-immigration initiative", remain unresolved.
However, the Swiss Christian Democratic Party (CVP) considers this decision correct. "Our party proposed introducing such a 'safeguard' back in April 2013, and in March 2015 we were also among the first to propose implementing the will of the people while simultaneously preserving the proven order of cooperation between Switzerland and the EU based on the introduction of a 'protective clause'," the party stated in an official press release. The same position is taken by the Conservative Democratic Party (Bürgerlich-Demokratische Partei Schweiz – BDP): "The so-called 'protective clause' fully corresponds to the conceptual solution we proposed back in March 2014," the party indicated in its communiqué.
Positive signals also came from representatives of Swiss industrial circles. Thus, the Swiss Builders' Association (Der Schweizerische Baumeisterverband) noted that "finally we see a concrete, politically feasible solution that allows limiting immigration and preserving the established order of cooperation with the EU," to whose countries, as is known, up to 60% of Swiss industrial exports are directed. A similar position is held by the influential industrial association Swissmem, which represents the interests of enterprises in the machine-building and metalworking industries.
Prepared by Igor PETROV,
Swissinfo.ch