Luxembourg’s Asselborn Wants Swiss-EU Treaty Clinched This Year

(Bloomberg) --

Luxembourg's foreign minister wants Switzerland to redouble its efforts to overcome labor unions' opposition to a treaty with the European Union, so that it can be finalized this year, according to a newspaper interview.

Bern and Brussels are at odds over an agreement to streamline relations, and the impasse has spilled over to stock trading, with the Swiss disallowing shares in their companies to be traded in the bloc. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, under whose auspices the framework deal has been negotiated, will leave office later this year.

Read More: How Swiss Spat With EU Is Spilling Into Stock Markets

“It would be a pity if we get into a negative spiral, where each side is combating the other,” Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn was quoted as saying by newspaper NZZ am Sonntag. “So my proposal to the Swiss government: don't break everything off, but negotiate with the social partners and try so that we clinch the framework agreement before November -- the end of the current commission's tenure.”

The pact is meant to replace 120 bilateral agreements covering everything from civil aviation to immigration now in force. But it is unpopular in Switzerland, where it's opposed not only by the euro-skeptic right but also labor unions, who fear it will erode local wages.

In the interview, published on Sunday, Asselborn said Frans Timmermans and Kristalina Georgieva were his “tips” for the commission presidency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Srinivasan Sivabalan, Amanda Jordan

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