Marathon negotiations come to an end Switzerland and the EU reach agreement - summer will be highly political
The negotiators from Bern and Brussels have reached an agreement. The initialling of the treaty texts marks a decisive step in Swiss-EU relations.
It's official: the chief negotiators from Switzerland and the EU initialed the new Switzerland-EU package in Bern today. This formally concludes years of negotiations on the future of the bilateral path.
Chief negotiator Patric Franzen signed on behalf of Switzerland and his colleague Richard Szostak signed on behalf of the EU. With the so-called initialling, both sides seal the treaty text - 800 pages long and politically explosive. The Federal Council is expected to publish the texts in mid-June and send them out for consultation. This will make the summer highly political.
No signature yet - but a strong signal
Although the initialling is not yet the final signature, it is a diplomatic handshake. Along the lines of: we have reached an agreement - now it's the turn of the parliaments and the people. The definitive signing could follow in the first quarter of 2026.
The reason for the long wait: before the treaties can be signed, they have to be "formalized". In concrete terms, this means that lawyers put every formulation through its paces to ensure there are no contradictions.
Then there is the time-consuming translation into the three official languages German, French and Italian. And automatic translation is not enough here - because in Switzerland, all language versions of a law have the same legal effect. Every nuance has to be right. A challenge even for professional translators.
According to the Federal Council, the aim of the package is to stabilize the bilateral approach and bring it up to date. Among other things, cooperation on electricity, food safety and health is to be newly regulated. A separate program agreement was already initialled in April - it allows Switzerland to retroactively participate in EU research and digital programs from the beginning of 2025.