Swiss Review 6/2020

Swiss Review / November 2020 / No.6 7 By Max Spring, the “Swiss Review” cartoonist agreement as “toxic”. It is not accept- able to have a “unilaterally European court deciding on matters arising fromthe relationship between the EU and a non-EU member state”, argued Pfister in a newspaper interview. The centrist politician is particularly con- cerned that the Court of Justice could force Switzerland to adopt the Citi- zens’ Rights Directive, which would make it easier for EU citizens to access welfare benefits in Switzerland. How- ever, the Directive is not explicitly mentioned in the framework agree- ment. Employee organisations oppose the agreement because of concerns over wage protection. Theywant Swit- zerland to be able to protect itself from wage dumping – as is currently the case through the accompanyingmeas- ures. The Trade Union Federation is also sceptical of the European Court of Justice, whose rulings in recent years haveweakened collective labour law, e.g. in relation to collective labour agreements and the right to strike. The Federal Council wants to renegotiate Only the Green Liberals, the BDP and the FDP – of which Federal Councillor and foreignminister Ignazio Cassis is amember – approve of the framework agreement. However, support from the Liberals is also starting to wane. Former FDP Federal Councillor Jo- hann Schneider-Ammann recently spoke out against a loss of sovereignty in an interview with the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. The balance be- tweennational sovereignty and access to the EU internal market has been overlooked in the draft framework agreement, “to Switzerland’s detri- ment”, argues the former economics minister. The “de facto subordination” of the arbitration panel to the Euro- pean Court of Justice would be a step too far. The government has already indi- cated that it intends to hold further ne- gotiations with the EU regarding the “unresolved issues”, including the Citi- zens’ Rights Directive and wage pro- tection. The Federal Council nomi- nated a new chief negotiator in mid-October. State secretary Livia Leu, the former Swiss ambassador in Paris, is already the fifth leading diplomat to take over the complex EU dossier. The