The EFTA/EU Delegation of the Swiss Federal Assembly and the members of the European Parliament’s DEEA Delegation responsible for relations with Switzerland meet annually to exchange views on and give a joint impetus to bilateral relations at a parliamentary level. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s meeting will take place in a condensed form and via video conference.
Following the rejection of the ‘Limitation Initiative’ by the Swiss electorate, the two delegations will discuss how to ensure close and extensive relations in the future. Under the co-chair of National Council member Eric Nussbaumer (SP, BL) and MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) members of parliament will discuss the further steps with respect to the institutional framework agreement.
A further topic of discussion will include Swiss-EU cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting will provide an opportunity to make an initial assessment of this cooperation and to acknowledge the importance of the existing agreements in joint crisis management. The talks will also cover the conditions for Switzerland’s participation in EU cooperation programmes, in particular in the ‘Horizon Europe’ and ‘Erasmus+’ programmes.
Ambassador Urs Bucher, head of the Swiss Mission to the European Union, and Stefano Sannino, Deputy Secretary General in the European External Action Service EEAS, will also participate in the inter-parliamentary meeting.
Information for journalists
There will be an online-held press call with the presidents of the two delegations after the inter-parliamentary meeting. This will take place on Friday, 9 October 2020 (at around 12.45pm). You can obtain the access data for the virtual meeting after registration. Please contact Mr Joachim Tomaschett, Delegation Secretary (joachim.tomaschett@parl.admin.ch; +41 58 322 97 23).