The Swiss held a referendum at the weekend which produced a wafer-thin majority for re-establishing a quota system for immigrants to the country, notably from the EU. The vote saw 50.3% of those polled deciding in favour of imposing an unspecified quota system on foreign workers entering the country and that Swiss nationals should be given priority for jobs. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, so you could be forgiven for not understanding the ramifications of this decision which was opposed by government, unions and employers groups.
The central tenet of the EU is that EU citizens should have the right to live and work in any of the 28 member states, ensuring freedom of movement. Switzerland is a member of EFTA, the European Free Trade Area, and in enjoying the benefits of this “associate membership” of the EU, the nation had to agree to allow EU citizens the right to work in Switzerland. At the moment, half of all Swiss exports are consumed by the European Union and enjoy the same freedom from tariffs that a member state would enjoy.
The reaction from Brussels and other capitals to the vote has been swift. Whilst everybody accepts the Swiss right to determine their own policies, it is being pointed out in no uncertain terms that the Swiss do not have the right to “cherry-pick” the aspects of EU agreements which they will adhere to – David Cameron take note. It seems clear that the EU must react to the Swiss decision, not least because a failure to do so would play into the hands of politicians across the bloc that seek to roll back freedom of movement by curbing immigration. These people focus on perceived low skilled immigrants from, predominantly, Eastern Europe as being a threat to domestic jobs and a cause of increased stress on welfare (perversely), housing, education and healthcare provisions, but many of those EU citizens working in Switzerland are highly educated professionals, meeting a shortfall in the Swiss workforce – which is why employer’s organisations were opposed to the vote.
The Swiss government is bound by the outcome of the referendum, but then again, the right to live and work in any member state was one of the founding principles of the Treaty of Rome which laid the foundations for the modern EU. Brussels will have no option but to respond to this “attack” on the fundamental principles of the EU in some way, sooner rather than later.