Negotiating privileged partnerships: EU-Switzerland relations and the joined-up approach in practice. College of Europe Policy Brief December 2020.

Veuthey, Alexandre (2020) Negotiating privileged partnerships: EU-Switzerland relations and the joined-up approach in practice. College of Europe Policy Brief December 2020. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The European Union’s 2016 Global Strategy calls for a more ‘joined-up’ approach – that is, for greater coherence – in the EU’s external action. One aspect of this coherence concerns the strategic link between sectoral cooperation with third countries, such as participation in EU programmes, and matters of foreign policy more broadly (e.g. a diplomatic dispute). The EU’s ‘privileged partnerships’ with neighbouring countries offer them deeper market access in exchange for the institutionalisation of their relations with the EU. A case in which the EU has in recent years successfully managed to deploy a joined-up approach in this regard is its relationship with Switzerland. The EU is in particular linking further sectoral cooperation to the signature of an ‘Institutional Framework Agreement’. This joined-up approach was facilitated by a significant degree of internal coordination and centralisation. Whereas the EU’s wish to engage in a consistent approach towards non-EU partners that participate in the extended Internal Market, stressing the balance of rights and obligations, is understandable, it increases the third countries’ costs of non-compliance with the EU’s position. This may, in turn, reduce the EU’s attractiveness in those countries and also lead to the loss of benefits for the EU.

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