A bit early as many details are not clear yet and a long approval process waits, but generally this is good news.
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In return, Switzerland has pledged a contribution to the EU cohesion fund for the years 2025 to 2029. This will amount to CHF130 million ($145 million) per year.
The sum will be allocated directly to programmes and projects in Switzerland’s partner countries within the EU. It will be due as soon as the negotiated package of agreements come into force.
I could speculate EU is betting here that these programmes and projects would make the Swiss more pro-EU minded over long time
Nothing new. It is the continuation of the old “Kohäsionsmillarde” and a small cost for Switzerland.
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Cool, I did not know about it before https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/en/home/sdc/activities/erweiterungsbeitrag.html
Sensible assessment from NZZ. The comments of course don’t bode well and one can only hope that whenever this goes to the final popular vote the “sovereign” will be rational.
yep. A a lovely name, no? So how much cohesive force does one billion … is it Swiss Franks or Euros … have?
In business, companies pay high sums to governments of fishy countries in order to even be allowed to do business there (naaaa, it’s not a thing of the past like they tell you). It’s called bribery.
EU has it written black and white in contracts, no need to hide it. 
You’re right, Switzerland can pay it, which I guess is the only reason they still bother with us 
Good interview with EU Ambo.
No substance, really. Maybe just right for a typical Blick reader, though.
Typical Blick reader? Who is that exactly? It is the Blick that I turn to for Swiss news. SRF news online is very limited. Watson is good but not so for daily news. 20 minutes is populist crap.
Tagi and NZZ both behind much more restrictive paywalls. A subscription is bad value compared to much more widely read “quality” papers from other countries.
Tagi is also very ZĂĽrich orientated. NZZ long boring articles.
I use the BBC to get the Swiss soccer results and league tables 
It makes me very sad that you did not like it.
I thought it explained some of the points that are often attacked in the Swiss debate in a simple and illustrative way. With the limitations that always apply to diplomatic language. In my view, the Swiss would be nuts to turn this agreement down.
I would agree with Buenzli that the article had no substance really. I would leave out the remark about the typical Blick reader as that one no longer exists imo.
I also don’t see those explanations you mentioned and most of all: These people all discuss a paper they have not even seen yet!! It won’t be out before spring. So at the moment it’s a case of “we don’t know what we’re talking about but let’s get emotional anyway”.
To pick one point: as far as I know the rule that foreign labourer will get the Swiss pay but expenses on the level of their home-countries is in my opinion outrageous! The pay may be very high here in comparison but they will spend most of it here during their stay on no doubt the lowest available level regarding accommodation/food. What the heck?! It just shows me that the EU is mainly Germany and France who don’t give a shit about all the poorer members as this is a thing the EU keeps insisting on, not Switzerland.
An other thing is, we just want to do business. We have free trade agreement with loads of countries (33 apparently, with 4 more still to be signed). We didn’t take over the laws of any of them. What I don’t know is do we bribe them every year (the EU has this elegant word “Kohäsionsmiliarden” Milliarde stands for billion) like we do EU?
The EU’s appetite for Switzerland is Trumpian. As this started on the Blick, a link lead me here for payment details. Again, not scientific, detailed listing but general info.
As to Switzeland needs the foreign work force. Absolutely. But there is no need for an endless contract with leaders of countries who give their employees less than Switzerland does. AfaIk EU-members are free people. So they could choose to accept a job in Switzerland anytime of their own accord. They have done for decades before this EU-thing.
Imo there is nothing stopping GB to employ foreigners still even after Brexit except maybe their own electorate.
I have not decided yet, how could I, the newest contract draft is not even out yet. There are so many arguments against it, the problem is that SVP is arguing so badly and simple that listening to them is painful, not informative.
In the video within the Blick article there was this bloke from “Alianz Kompass” who sounded reasonable. Never heard of them, need to check them out = the Blick link delivered a new info I would not have without komsomolez as I don’t read the Blick and nope, won’t in future either. It’s one thing I like about SF; the delivery of specific information from sources I don’t know or frequent.
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Wut?
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Indeed, the main vulnerability from the Swiss side is electricity imports. Switzerland is not in a strong position to negotiate, thus any concession won is a big win.
That is only for “posted workers”, whatever that is (I suppose is a construction worker?). I don’t know any posted worker here, people came to work for multinationals, as students, teachers, doctors, etc. Or simply on jobs they are paid a normal salary and can decide to spend it as they like (or can). I don’t get the blick article either.
But you can naturally trigger the readers so there’s my explanation.
What laws? The government doesn’t give you anything, unless you work for the government. What is it with this stupidity about salaries? Salaries are lower in other countries and they are much lower in the neighbouring countries too i.e. Austria, Italy, France, Germany. And the vast majority of labourers come from there. It’s been like that for a lot of time and it will continue to be like that, what a false argument.
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Posted worker yes are most often construction workers and it may not come as a surprise that you don’t know any. They are only here for a limited time and do most likely not stay in your neighbourhood. They mainly work in housing construction and interior finish.
The second part of your post made no sense to me except that it was obviously not in relation to what I wrote.
I think EU negotiation strategy is either submission or we will show you the Brexit way, and some Swiss politicians are enamored in the big European politics in the same blindfolded way as Brussel Eurocrats, especially the left and Romandie.
Submission? After the shitshow in which the previous negitiations ended, I think it is remarkably positive that the EU is ready to continue the “bilaterals” - a system that no other country enjoys. It gives full market access without membership in the EU or even EEA. It is the approach that Switzerland wanted after it chose not to join the EEA, and now this approach gets modernized. And before someone brings up the idiotic FTA comparison again - the integration through the bilaterals goes way beyond any FTA.
Yes, there may be things in the fineprint we don’t know yet and there will be things that are not 100% what Switzerland wanted. Grow up, this is life.
And what is the alternative? Sticking to the existing contracts that will frustrate Switzerland’s biggest trading partner and erode in practice as EU laws evolve. This will only cause more and more problems for companies active in cross-border business, cost growth, jobs, taxes.
The “Milliarde” is spread over ten years, Switzerland supervises its application/spending to reduce the risk of corruption. The budgeted annual average was 100mln for the first 10yr-block and 130mln for the second (amounts in CHF). This got authorised by, you guessed it, a public vote as the proposed new law got challenged by a referendum (referendum against the new law got raised. the necessary 50k signatures got collected, that forces a federal vote, it got a Yes in 2006). 2007 saw the first contribution. When Switzerland got kicked out of Erasmus these payments got paused (for a couple years if memory serves).
And now the tricky part:
If the commitment is measured in CHF the Euro amount roughly doubled as the Euro was 1.50-1.60 back then, but I’m not sure if that’s actually the case.
Outlook:
The authorising law has lapsed in Dec 2024. So there’s probably one more referendum waiting to happen in the not-too-distant future because the 3rd 10yr-block will require renewal.
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Some Swiss politicians want to have free access to the EU market and rightly so. They have a lot of leverage to use, it’s not like they have to accept any conditions. If Switzerland was an EU member, that would have been a totally different case.
They can’t exit what they haven’t been part of. Sure, they can turn down the bilaterals any time in theory (now that would be a Trumpian measure, with similar effects and craziness, but SVP is not always a rational party and has a lot of supporters) and I doubt they really want that…or, can introduce accompanying measures to protect themselves against any wage or price dumping etc. Wait…they already did that. I don’t really care tbh, to me it looks like issues that have been already addressed.