The souring relations between Switzerland and the European Union are creating more and more concern in Switzerland and in ELEC’s Swiss section in particular. The outcome of the referendum against mass immigration last February has already  led to an escalation between the two trading partners. In a speech (see power point presentation) to the Spanish section of ELEC in Barcelona, Thomas Cottier, the president of ELEC Switzerland and professor of European economic law at the University of Bern, claimed that the new provisions in the Swiss constitution are incompatible with the free movement of persons that the EU and the EFTA agreed upon and could represent a huge cost to the Swiss economy.

At the same time, several members of ELEC Switzerland were involved in a public appeal that has already been signed by 1.600 people. CH-in-Europa calls for a large discussion on a new groundwork for  the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union.