No single market access without free movement of people, EU tells Switzerland

The European Union is to show its determination to make no concessions to the UK on Brexit terms by telling Switzerland it will lose access to the single market if it goes ahead with plans to impose controls on the free movement of EU citizens.

The Swiss-EU talks, under way for two years ever since a referendum demanded quotas on European Union migration but now needing a solution possibly within two weeks, throws up the exact same issues that will be raised in the UK’s exit talks – the degree to which the UK must accept free movement of the EU’s citizens as a price for access to the single market.

The Swiss are desperate to strike a deal in order to give its politicians time to pass the necessary laws to meet a February 2017 deadline imposed by a legally binding referendum in 2014.

The government sees few ways out and, in what could be a warning to Britain, may have no choice but to ask voters to reconsider.

Switzerland is one of the models some supporters of Britain leaving the European Union have pointed to of a European economy that thrives outside of the EU. But in 1999, to negotiate access to the European single market, Switzerland had to agree to bilateral deals that allows free movement of workers from EU countries.

European leaders say they will demand free movement conditions if Britain is to retain access to the EU market, a position that British officials easily acknowledge makes it difficult to deliver the limits on migration that voters want while also keeping the free trade businesses need.

Donald Tusk, the EU council president, added that the leaders had made it “crystal clear” that access to the single market “requires acceptance of all four EU freedoms – including freedom of movement. There can be no single market à la carte.”

The Brexit threat will also mean that talks between Switzerland and the European Union will not get easier, the president of the European parliament Martin Schulz said.

“Free movement of people now plays a bigger role, in light of the imminent Brexit negotiations … We have to find a solution with Switzerland because we need each other. I believe Switzerland [needs] the EU a bit more than the other way round,” Schulz said.

The former president of the FDP-Liberal Radicals, Philipp Müller, on Sunday said the Brexit threat should serve as a warning to the Swiss, amid suggestions in Brussels the prospect of UK-EU exit talks meant there was less willingness to give ground on freedom of movement.

Müller suggested that the Swiss may unilaterally have to prepare a solution in which it suggests migration can be controlled in certain sectors if the Swiss and the EU jointly conclude unemployment is too high above the national average. He admitted the EU and the Swiss were currently miles apart in the talks.

Switzerland is thrashing around for a compromise but Johann Schneider-Ammann, the Swiss president, has said a safeguard clause containing a national ceiling on EU migration has no chance. He has suggested action could be taken “when difficulties arise in a particular industry and in a specific region”.

This solution “could be an acceptable basis for discussion in Brussels”.

One idea is for the Swiss to be entitled to impose quotas in industries when the unemployment rate in a particular trade, occupation or region rises strongly above the Swiss average. This would be overseen by a joint committee, in which representatives of Switzerland and the EU would sit.