Swiss abandon years of EU talks and reject treaty

[Saithan]

Swiss abandon years of EU talks and reject treaty

Switzerland's decision to halt efforts on reaching an over-arching treaty could harm ties with the EU.

www.bbc.com

Interesting, wanting a piece of the pie, but not committing to policies that's against your national interest. Sooner or later EU will demand commitment instead of preferential treatment.

Timeline

1972: Free Trade Agreement
1992: Swiss vote narrowly against joining European Economic Area
1992-2002: Switzerland negotiates, then signs first bilateral agreements with EU - they are interdependent, and include free movement of people - backed by a vote in 2000. An overall framework agreement is proposed in 2002

2005: Swiss vote to join Europe's Schengen open borders treaty and extend free movement to 10 new EU states
2014: Swiss narrowly back quotas on EU workers, angering the EU. Talks take place to formalise relations in a framework treaty

@xenon5434 How much would it harm Switzerland if the bilateral deals disappeared ?

 

[Xenon54]

Swiss abandon years of EU talks and reject treaty

Switzerland's decision to halt efforts on reaching an over-arching treaty could harm ties with the EU.

www.bbc.com

Interesting, wanting a piece of the pie, but not committing to policies that's against your national interest. Sooner or later EU will demand commitment instead of preferential treatment.

Timeline

1972: Free Trade Agreement
1992: Swiss vote narrowly against joining European Economic Area
1992-2002: Switzerland negotiates, then signs first bilateral agreements with EU - they are interdependent, and include free movement of people - backed by a vote in 2000. An overall framework agreement is proposed in 2002

2005: Swiss vote to join Europe's Schengen open borders treaty and extend free movement to 10 new EU states
2014: Swiss narrowly back quotas on EU workers, angering the EU. Talks take place to formalise relations in a framework treaty

@xenon5434 How much would it harm Switzerland if the bilateral deals disappeared ?

It would be bad obviously but lets look at the demands from EU:

What went wrong?​

The Swiss government has highlighted three issues: protection of wages, rules governing state aid, and the right of EU citizens working in Switzerland to claim Swiss welfare benefits as part of freedom of movement.



Yeah sure, do you want something else?
Switzerlands biggest secret for its success is its ability to say no where its due, good that they havent given in to the ridiculous demands from EU.

 

[Saithan]

It would be bad obviously but lets look at the demands from EU:

What went wrong?​

The Swiss government has highlighted three issues: protection of wages, rules governing state aid, and the right of EU citizens working in Switzerland to claim Swiss welfare benefits as part of freedom of movement.



Yeah sure, do you want something else?
Switzerlands biggest secret for its success is its ability to say no where its due, good that they havent given in to the ridiculous demands from EU.

Well, if Polish workers come to Denmark and work on construction projects, and they have residence as well. They're paying tax to Denmark which entitles them to social welfare support as well. Child welfare, sick leave pay etc. This goes for anyone working and paying tax in Denmark.

Don't you think the same should apply to EU citizens living and working in Switzerland ? (I actually assumed it was the case).

 

[Xenon54]

Well, if Polish workers come to Denmark and work on construction projects, and they have residence as well. They're paying tax to Denmark which entitles them to social welfare support as well. Child welfare, sick leave pay etc. This goes for anyone working and paying tax in Denmark.

Don't you think the same should apply to EU citizens living and working in Switzerland ? (I actually assumed it was the case).

Any worker who works in Switzerland and lives abroad gets Child support but they dont pay the same taxes as a resident so they dont get social wellfare, they pay their taxes in their respective countries so their countries should pay the wellfare.
EU already makes profit when its citizen work in Switzerland and pay taxes in their own countries, demanding more is just shameless.

 

[Saithan]

Any worker who works in Switzerland and lives abroad gets Child support but they dont pay the same taxes as a resident so they dont get social wellfare, they pay their taxes in their respective countries so their countries should pay the wellfare.
EU already makes profit when its citizen work in Switzerland and pay taxes in their own countries, demanding more is just shameless.

You are talking about pendlers right. People who cross the border to work but at the end of the day go back home. There double taxation deals among the countries to regulate this. If Swiss pendlers are given these rights then I can understand that Seiss would have to implement same principles. Of course support in Poland isn’t on same level as Denmark. So even danish politicians feel it’s unbalanced.

 

[Xenon54]

You are talking about pendlers right. People who cross the border to work but at the end of the day go back home. There double taxation deals among the countries to regulate this. If Swiss pendlers are given these rights then I can understand that Seiss would have to implement same principles. Of course support in Poland isn’t on same level as Denmark. So even danish politicians feel it’s unbalanced.

Well it evens out when you consider the wage defference, a german in switzerland earns at least double and sometimes even triple the salary of what he would in germany.
And the wellfare in those countries is according to the life standarts, imagine someone in germany getting wellfare from switzerland, there is a lot room for exploitation of the system and the burden would be on swiss people, thx but, no thx.
The wellfare should be temporary until someone gets back on his own feet, not something for people to live off of it.

Stuff like this is why right wing is so strong in switzerland and honestly i agree with them on a lot issues espacially regarding foreing policy.

 

[Saithan]

Well it evens out when you consider the wage defference, a german in switzerland earns at least double and sometimes even triple the salary of what he would in germany.
And the wellfare in those countries is according to the life standarts, imagine someone in germany getting wellfare from switzerland, there is a lot room for exploitation of the system and the burden would be on swiss people, thx but, no thx.
The wellfare should be temporary until someone gets back on his own feet, not something for people to live off of it.

Stuff like this is why right wing is so strong in switzerland and honestly i agree with them on a lot issues espacially regarding foreing policy.

Double taxing system is there to prevent such cases. So a person living in Germany won’t get unemployment support from Switzerland. That would fall on Germanys welfare system.

Perhaps the childcare pat could be used as an example. Should e.g. Denmark pay childcare support to a polish guy who’s kid isnin Poland.

Here I’d say the childs residence status is deciding factor. Even though the father works and pays tax in Denmark. It’s got nothing to do with childcare.