Photograph by Ian Lord
Voters in Switzerland have backed a proposal to introduce quotas for all types of immigration.
The proposal from the nationalist People’s Party (SVP) won 50.3% of the vote, with the Swiss government now left to renegotiate its free movement treaties with the EU and convince member states that they are still a reliable partner. Much of Swiss trade is dependant on the EU, and its government will need to go on a diplomatic offensive to maintain good relations.
In a statement, the European Commission said it regretted that Switzerland had voted to introduce quotas, continuing:
“This goes against the principle of free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland. The EU will examine the implications of this initiative on EU-Swiss relations as a whole.”
Although Switzerland is not an EU member state, it signed onto the EU accord for free movement of citizens in 1999 and implemented it from 2002 with an estimated million EU citizens currently living in Switzerland, and 400,000 Swiss living in the EU.
1 Comment
Hi,
Switzerland: Voters choose to introduce quotas on EU immigration. I as a British/Swiss citizen with my children in Switzerland maybe could help in explaining things. Switzerland is in many ways a special country with a population distribution of to the East, German speaking and to the West French speaking, down south you have Italian speaking with a few scientifically preserved old languages. The west is usually the human part of Switzerland, the east the bull dog part. This has something to do with diplomacy and finance. That a referendum for the whole of Switzerland came to such a conclusion is indicative and sends a signal that an honest politician must understands. Evaluate so.