Under the joint leadership of Council of States president Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP, SG) and Jørn Dohrmann MEP (EKR, Denmark), members of the EFTA/EU Delegation will meet with representatives of the European Parliament’s SINEEA Delegation responsible for relations with Switzerland in Strasbourg for the 37th annual inter-parliamentary meeting on 4 and 5 July. This meeting will focus on bilateral relations between Switzerland and the ongoing negotiations on institutional issues, which need to be resolved in order to be able to conclude a new market access agreement and safeguard Switzerland’s existing sectoral participation in the EU’s internal market.
During the two-day inter-parliamentary meeting, the members of the EFTA/EU Delegation will exchange views with the chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, Danuta Hübner MEP (EVP, Poland), on the timing, procedure and content of the ongoing negotiations regarding the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the shaping of the EU’s future relationship with the UK. The former European trade commissioner and commissioner for regional policy is a member of the European Parliament’s Brexit steering committee established by the Conference of Presidents.
Talks with Bernd Lange MEP (S&D, Germany), chair of the Committee on International Trade, will focus on common economic and trade policy challenges. Foreign policy issues, in particular the latest developments surrounding the Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA), will be discussed with Knut Fleckenstein MEP (S&D, Germany), member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Iran.
Ms Keller-Sutter will also meet Mairead McGuinness MEP (EVP, Ireland), first Vice President of the European Parliament, for bilateral talks. Ms McGuinness fosters relations with national parliaments and is responsible for the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC). A meeting is also planned with Bogusław Liberadzki MEP (S&D, Poland), also a member of the Bureau of the European Parliament. In his capacity as president of the Council of States Foreign Affairs Committee, Council of States member Filippo Lombardi will meet with David McAllister MEP (EVP, Germany), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The delegation will be led by Ms Keller-Sutter and will include National Council members Eric Nussbaumer (SP, BL), Hans-Peter Portmann (FDP, ZH) and Kathy Riklin (CVP, ZH). In addition, Mr Lombardi (CVP, TI) will take part in the meeting in his capacity as president of the Council of States Foreign Affairs Committee. In addition to the EFTA/EU and SINEEA delegations, Ambassador Urs Bucher, head of the Swiss mission in Brussels, and Henri Gétaz, advisor at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, will also be present.