On 26 May 2021, after seven years, the Federal Council broke off negotiations with the EU on the InstA Treaty, which was to replace the 120 bilateral agreements currently in force. The idea was to create a mechanism that would automatically bring Swiss law into line with EU law and eliminate the need to renegotiate the bilateral agreements mentioned above repeatedly. An arbitration mechanism has been set up to give the Court of Justice of the European Union the final say on the interpretation of legal texts in the event of a dispute. The conditions for signing the agreement are therefore not met. The Federal Council decided not to sign the agreement and communicated this decision to the EU. This concludes the negotiations on the InstA project. However, the Federal Council considers that it is in the common interest of Switzerland and the EU to ensure well-established cooperation and to systematically maintain existing agreements. It therefore wishes to start a political dialogue with the EU on further cooperation. The government highlighted the lack of agreement on three key points that have hampered progress since an agreement was drafted in 2018: wage protection, state aid rules and EU citizens` access to Swiss social security benefits. In addition, the Federal Council intends to maintain and expand Switzerland`s partnership with the EU on the basis of bilateral agreements, as far as possible and in the interests of both parties. It therefore proposes to launch a political dialogue with the EU in order to define and pursue common priorities for future cooperation. It will also seek solutions to specific problems with the EU in order to ensure the proper application of bilateral agreements to the extent possible. As Switzerland is a direct democracy, any international treaty must be ratified by referendum.

But the Swiss public is divided on the issue of instA. This is not surprising, as the views of Swiss voters on the opportunities and risks of the conclusion of the institutional framework agreement and its failure are very different. Both sides only agree that the issue of “framework agreements, yes or no” is of great importance for future bilateral relations. Draft institutional agreement (PDF, 1.0 MB, French) This move towards more cooperation corresponds to the preferences of respondents who were in favour of the institutional framework agreement (dark blue dotted line), as they generally considered a slightly closer relationship between Switzerland and the EU – but not EU membership – as an ideal scenario. For the other side, however, this was not the case: for these voters, the status quo of bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU, with its dense network of bilateral agreements, was strongly in line with their ideal. A shift towards greater cooperation as a result of the institutional framework agreement would therefore change the status quo in a direction they would not prefer. Switzerland`s bilateral relations with the European Union have been the subject of intensive discussions for years. In 2014, the two sides began negotiations on the terms of an institutional framework agreement that would institutionalize their bilateral relations. On 26 May, the Swiss government announced that it was withdrawing from these negotiations and would not sign the agreement. Based on the assessment of the current state, supporters expected a reduction in cooperation of 2.2 points, while opponents expected a reduction of only 0.9 points. At the same time, the average value of bilateral relations to be expected in case of failure was much closer to the ideal scenario of the opponents than in the case of the adoption of the agreement (distance of 0.3 points in case of failure and 1.7 points in case of acceptance). Supporters of instA fear an erosion of the bilateral path and a gradual exclusion of Switzerland from the European single market and other benefits of the European integration project.

The other side fears that the conclusion of the institutional framework agreement will weaken Switzerland`s national sovereignty and that the agreement will be the first step towards “creeping EU membership”. The institutional agreement aimed to guarantee Switzerland`s access to the European internal market and to create a basis for extending this access. Overall, it is clear that the political gap between supporters and opponents of the institutional framework agreement exists not only at the level of political elites, but can also be observed among voters. It should be noted that the two sides not only assess differently the effects of the conclusion and failure of the framework agreement, but also perceive the status quo of current bilateral relations differently. Over time, the EU has increasingly supported an “EEA approach” in its relations with Switzerland. However, given the EEA`s continued unpopularity in Switzerland, the EU has agreed to a bilateral solution. The result, the draft institutional agreement (hereinafter referred to as InstA), is currently being consulted in Switzerland. The agreement provides for mechanisms similar to those of the EEA, such as a judicial institution for the settlement of disputes and a dynamic adoption of EU law in the areas of the internal market in which Switzerland participates.

.