Austria Supports Swiss Push For Swift End To EU Bilaterals

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

08 September 2003

The Swiss government has garnered the support of neighbouring Austria in its push to conclude a second set of bi-lateral agreements with the European Union by the year's end.

The news came to light following a meeting between Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and her Austrian counterpart Benito Ferrero-Waldner in Vienna last week, where the latter also stated support for the idea of the accords' being treated as one package rather than piecemeal agreements.

As part of a five-day tour of European nations, Calmy-Rey will address the same issue with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini in Rome today (September 8). Though the Italians and the Swiss have not exactly seen eye to eye on European matters in recent years, particularly on the sensitive issues of banking secrecy and savings taxation, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged in a meeting with Swiss PM Pascal Couchepin in July to use Italy's presidency to advance Bern's cause in Brussels and work for a swift resolution to the recent impasse.

"The Italians have decided to give a political impulse to end the talks, and to do so before the end of the year," Couchepin told Swissinfo at the time, adding: "We need to work through the technical issues and then have a political discussion that allows us to coordinate and to give and take depending on the different dossiers."

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