Swiss remain optimistic about trade agreement

Date: 26/03/1998

By Mark Turner

SWITZERLAND is still holding out hopes that it can reach a wide-ranging trade agreement with the EU, despite last week's high-profile failure by transport ministers to agree on the key issue of trans-Alpine road tolls.

"We have never been so close to an agreement", Bern's EU ambassador Alexis Lautenberg told European Voice this week. "I am sure ministers can still reach an agreement."

However, EU officials are far from convinced they can reverse the decision to reject the deal, after Germany insisted the proposed tolls were too high and based on misleading calculations. This sparked outrage in Switzerland, prompting a certain degree of backtracking by Bonn. "I think these objections can be worked out if one enters a consultation process in a careful and serious way, and both sides are flexible," said German Transport Minister Matthias Wissman.

But Lautenberg confirmed that Switzerland was not prepared to reopen the deal struck with Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock earlier this year. "We have signalled that we can be flexible in one or two collateral areas, but we will not and cannot touch the road transport agreement. There is no other basis possible for a deal," he said. "For us it is no longer an issue between Switzerland and the Union. It is within the Union itself."

The irony, says Lautenberg, is that Germany and Switzerland share many similar objectives in terms of road pricing, reflected in Bonn's calls for a significant increase in the Eurovignette toll.