Laughter greets the finale to EU-Switzerland deal

Series Title
Series Details 02/07/98, Volume 4, Number 27
Publication Date 02/07/1998
Content Type

Date: 02/07/1998

There were sniggers all round during a recent EU ambassadors' meeting to discuss the ongoing - and highly tortuous - trade and liberalisation negotiations between the EU and Switzerland.

It fell to top European Commission official François Lamoureux to inform national representatives of the state of play in the talks. However, when the unfortunate Frenchman stressed the importance of the 'Kloten Agreement' in clinching a deal, his comments were greeted with peals of laughter from the Dutch camp.

While Lamoureux was under the impression he was talking about one of Switzerland's better-known airports, he was quickly informed that in Dutch the word kloten refers to a particularly vulnerable part of the male anatomy.

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