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The most important treaty relationship in the rollover so far: UK-Switzerland. Some quick thoughts, also on the Swiss-EU relationship, which is poorly understood (thread)
First off: relevant links. The treaty text, parliamentary report and explanatory memorandum can be found here gov.uk/government/col…
The treaty is a short form agreement. It incorporates EU treaties by reference and changes them, so it’s easy to see continuity and lack thereof. Links to the incorporated EU treaties (the first linked EU text is wrong, the rest seem ok) gov.uk/government/col…
The German treaty text is available here. Never forget that treaty interpretation is a job for multilingualists... seco.admin.ch/dam/seco/de/do…
Now to the basics. The EU-Swiss relationship is complex. Here’s a list (in German) of all the treaties between the two. eda.admin.ch/dam/dea/de/doc…
If you want to understand the relationship the best book is (unsurprisingly) not in English. Switzerland speaks French, German, Italian. I’d recommend Thomas Cottier et al. “Die Rechtsbeziehungen der Schweiz und der Europäischen Union”
Even though there are many treaties you can identify some major ones: Three from before 1999 (the Swiss-EU FTA, one on insurances, one on customs facilitation updated 2009), 7 “Bilateral I” from 1999, 9 “Bilateral II” from 2004, 10 post 2004 - according to eda.admin.ch/dea/de/home/bi…
Which ones are rolled over? The UK-Swiss FTA lists eight rolled over agreements. Two are not on the list of major agreements. There are separate agreements with Switzerland, though, including on insurance.
The six major rolled over agreements? The 1972 FTA, 3 of the Bilateral I (procurement, MRA, Agriculture), one Bilateral II (anti-fraud) and the Customs Facilitation/Security Agreement. These are major agreements.
However, their rollover comes with a caveat: three of the agreements (MRA, Agriculture, Customs) are not rolled over in their entirety. In fact, the Customs one isn’t at all. They can be rolled over in changed form by a decision of the Joint Committee
Note that the English wording has typos in this para. Compare the German version
Yes indeed. It is not chapters 1 AND 11, but chapters 1 TO 11 that are excluded from the rollover of the MRA. It is not Annexes 4 AND 6, but annexes 4 TO 6 of the Agriculture Agreement that are excluded.
Now these exclusions are also significant. The MRA applies in the areas of its chapters. Only three of 20 chapters are rolled over. The Customs Agreement is not rolled over at all, the Agriculture Agreement also lacks significant bits. Why is that?
Because there are a lot of areas of harmonisation, implementation of EU law by Switzerland. This is significant for the MRA, which accepts Swiss standards as equivalent in some fields and similarly the Agriculture Agreement on SPS.
The relationship will thus have some continuity, but will be worse where the Swiss relationship relies on EU law / harmonization etc. Switzerland is also in Schengen, has free movement and follows Dublin, has relations with Eurojust etc. None of that is, obviously, rolled over.
And of course Romansh.
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