Institutional agreement

The flags of Switzerland and the European Union.
In the view of the Federal Council, it is in the shared interest of Switzerland and the EU to continue with their proven bilateral approach even in the absence of the institutional agreement. © FDFA

At its meeting on 26 May, the Federal Council undertook an overall evaluation of the outcome of the negotiations on the institutional framework agreement (InstA). It concluded that there remain substantial differences between Switzerland and the EU on key aspects of the agreement.

The conditions are thus not met for the signing of the agreement. The Federal Council took the decision not to sign the agreement and communicated this decision to the EU. This brings the negotiations on the draft of the InstA to a close. The Federal Council nevertheless considers it to be in the shared interest of Switzerland and the EU to safeguard their well-established cooperation and to systematically maintain the agreements already in force. It therefore wishes to launch a political dialogue with the EU on continued cooperation.

Information and explanatory documents on the institutional agreement

No signing of Swiss–EU institutional agreement, Press release, 26.05.2021

Letter from the Federal Council to the President of the European Commission, 26.05.2021 (Unofficial translation; original text in French prevails) (PDF, 2 Pages, 270.7 kB, English)

Alternatives for negotiations: Assessment by Nicolas Levrat of the University of Geneva (PDF, 60 Pages, 12.0 MB, French)

Alternatives for negotiations: Assessment by Michael Ambühl and Daniela Scherer of ETH ZurichExpert (PDF, 28 Pages, 1.6 MB, German)

Timeline of Swiss-EU relations since 2013 (PDF, 2 Pages, 241.1 kB, English)

Institutional agreement: outcome of talks between Switzerland and the EU on Citizens' Rights Directive (CRD), wage protection and state aid issues (PDF, 2 Pages, 242.9 kB, English)

Mandat d’examen en vue d’éliminer de manière autonome des divergences entre l’ordre juridique suisse et le droit européen (PDF, 1 Page, 206.0 kB, French)

Report on the negotiations on an institutional framework agreement between Switzerland and the EU (PDF, 34 Pages, 939.6 kB, English)

Draft text of the institutional agreement (the draft of the institutional agreement is not available in English) (PDF, 34 Pages, 1.0 MB, French)

Institutional agreement Switzerland-EU: explanations (in German) (PDF, 23 Pages, 1.0 MB, German)


Institutional agreement Switzerland - EU: key points in brief (PDF, 7 Pages, 148.5 kB, English)

 

Outcome of the consultations on the draft text of the institutional agreement

Letter from the Federal Council to the President of the European Commission (unofficial translation; original  text in French prevails) (PDF, 2 Pages, 386.0 kB, English)

Summary of the press conference on 07.06.2019 (Youtube)

Institutional agreement Switzerland-EU: Federal Council to demand clarifications, Press release, 07.06.2019

Report on the consultations on the institutional agreement between Switzerland and the European Union, 7.6.2019 (in German)  (PDF, 22 Pages, 791.3 kB, German)

Replies from the Federal Council to questions about the Swiss-EU institutional agreement raised during the consultations (PDF, 34 Pages, 1.1 MB, German)

Institutional agreement: consultations (PPTX, 7.3 MB, German)

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Written opinions of the institutions and organisations consulted