Switzerland to resume negotiations with EU on updating bilateral treaties

A Swiss-EU deal will update a web of more than 100 agreements on everything from food safety to machinery certification, reported from Bloomberg.

The EU has said it won’t renew expiring agreements until an overarching settlement is found, basically threatening to gradually shut Switzerland off from Europe’s single market.

After months of exploratory work, the EU and Switzerland are preparing to restart formal negotiations on a new agreement to update multiple treaties dating back decades.

The previous effort failed when the Swiss unexpectedly walked away after years of wrangling.

Negotiations are supposed to kick off in March and finish this year, Ambassador Petros Mavromichalis said, albeit noting that in Switzerland "things tend to take a long time.”

www.anews.az