Switzerland recently rejected the years of negotiations with the European Union over a proposed overarching agreement that would have upgraded its relations with the bloc \u2013 which are currently governed by a patchwork of more than 120 bilateral deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The talks failed after the two sides could not agree over issues such as full access for EU citizens to the Swiss labour market, and the collapse is expected to hamper future ties as the multiple existing agreements become outdated or lapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Switzerland is the EU\u2019s fourth-largest trading partner, and is surrounded by EU countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around 14 lakh EU citizens live in Switzerland, which has a total population of about 85 lakh. Some 3.4 lakh travel across the border to work in Swiss industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU is Switzerland\u2019s biggest trading destination, with the country exporting goods and services worth 160 billion euros to the bloc in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relations between the two partners rest on the foundation of over 120 separate treaties, something which has frustrated the EU for a long time. Unlike the UK, Switzerland has access to the EU single market and maintains open borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU had been pushing for an \u201cinstitutional framework agreement\u201d with Switzerland, and had circulated a fact sheet that pointed out how a lack of common rules would lead to the Alpine country losing its \u2018privileged\u2019 status with the bloc\u2019s electricity system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EU had been demanding full access for its citizens to Switzerland\u2019s labour market, including for those seeking work. The Swiss federal council was against this happening, as it would have given non-Swiss citizens social security rights\u2013 something that Cassis called an unwanted \u201cparadigm shift\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Switzerland recently rejected the years of negotiations with the European Union over a proposed overarching agreement that would have upgraded its relations with the bloc \u2013 which are currently governed by a patchwork of more than 120 bilateral deals. Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021 The talks failed after the two sides could not agree over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":404,"featured_media":43616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1407],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-43615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-may-2021","tag-international-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43617,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43615\/revisions\/43617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}