The Swiss far-right on Friday said it would be a strategic error to forge closer links with the European Union.
Christoph Blocher, of the Swiss People’s Party, who was launching the “Committee against a creeping EU entry,” said he could never agree to a pact where Brussels would impose EU rules and regulations on Switzerland and then allow EU courts to settle disputes, Reuters reported.
“Foreign laws, foreign judges. That is a very fundamental decision we have to make, along the lines of the 1992 decision on entering the European Economic Area and then the EU,” Blocher said, referring to Swiss voters’ rejection of that process.
The Swiss, who voted to cap immigration in a 2014 referendum, are approaching crunch-time in their relationship with the EU, which is based on a myriad of bilateral agreements. The parliament in Bern needs clarity on how to apply the referendum result by December or damage trade ties with the EU.
The negotiations are running parallel to immigration talks. But it would be up to parliament to approve a deal, which could still be voted on through a referendum.