No Move Without Free Movement: The EU-Swiss Controversy Over Quotas for Free Movement of Persons

CEPS Policy Brief, No. 331, April 2015

10 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2015

See all articles by Sergio Carrera

Sergio Carrera

Centre for European Policy Studies

Elspeth Guild

Radboud University Nijmegen - Faculty of Law; Kingsley Napley - Department of Immigration; The British Institute of International and Comparative Law; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Katharina Eisele

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Date Written: April 23, 2015

Abstract

The focus of this Policy Brief is the Swiss referendum of 2014 against 'mass immigration' in Switzerland. It identifies the challenges that a quota on EU citizens’ free movement rights to Switzerland would pose to EU-Swiss relations, considering: i) the value of freedom of movement in the EU and its indivisibility from the internal market and other economic freedoms; ii) the specificity of the EU legal system following the Lisbon Treaty that established democratic and judicial accountability mechanisms; iii) the lack of supranational judicial oversight of the EU-Switzerland agreements framework; and iv) the existence of the so-called guillotine mechanism, according to which the termination of the Free Movement Agreement would entail the automatic termination of the other agreements with the EU. The authors set out a number of options and consider their implications for EU-Swiss relations.

Keywords: EU-Swiss relations, EU-Swiss, Free Movement Agreement

Suggested Citation

Carrera, Sergio and Guild, Elspeth and Eisele, Katharina, No Move Without Free Movement: The EU-Swiss Controversy Over Quotas for Free Movement of Persons (April 23, 2015). CEPS Policy Brief, No. 331, April 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2613327

Sergio Carrera (Contact Author)

Centre for European Policy Studies ( email )

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Elspeth Guild

Radboud University Nijmegen - Faculty of Law ( email )

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London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

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Katharina Eisele

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) ( email )

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