On 15 December 2023, the Swiss Federal Council adopted draft negotiating mandate with the European Union. The mandate sets out guidelines for the negotiations, which will start once the mandate is definitively adopted, after consultation with Swiss Parliament and the cantons.
On the EU side, the President of the European Commission informed in its letter of 13 December 2023 addressed to the Swiss Confederation that the Commission will seek a mandate from the Council of the European Union to start negotiations with Switzerland.
The future EU-CH negotiations will cover a broad list of areas under the so-called package approach, including a systematic participation in EU programmes, particularly in education and research.
The technical talks for the association to EU programmes have already started at the end of November 2023. The formal negotiation rounds will take place as soon as the negotiation mandates are adopted on both sides, most probably in March 2024.
A stated in the EU-CH Common Understanding from November 2023, a transitional arrangement could apply “on the understanding that the association process will be completed swiftly.”
“This transitional arrangement should apply once both Switzerland and the EU have adopted negotiation mandates and the negotiation process on the broad package, including on Union programmes, has started”. Switzerland could then participate in the ERC Advanced Grant call 2024 opening on 29 May 2024.
“The transitional arrangement should be extended to calls opening from the work programmes 2025 only if the agreement negotiated on Union programmes has been initialed by then.”
The Stick to Science campaign welcomes these latest positive announcements and the possibility for Switzerland to benefit from a transitional arrangement as of 2024.
Switzerland’s association to Horizon Europe has to become reality as soon as possible. Only a full association will secure Europe’s full scientific capacity.