On February, the 8th. 2009, the Swiss will decide through a referendum whether they agree or not to enlarging free movement of EU citizens to Romania and Bulgaria. Basically, this treaty facilitates the easiness of a Romanian or Bulgarian citizen to reside in Switzerland. Until now in order to reside in Switzerland for more than three months, a Romanian citizen needed to submit a visa application in his/her country of origin and after receiving this visa he/she was allowed to apply for a residence permit. Under the new law, the same citizen won't have to apply for a visa in his/her country of origin anymore. Thus, the process of receiving a residence permit is simplified.
Furthermore, the free movement law has provisions regarding the right to asylum and immigration policy. Without going into details, I will tackle each of SVP's (the Swiss People's Party) accusations.
1. More job losses - The Labour Ministry in Switzerland pointed several times to the fact that Switzerland needs more people on certain job areas and that EU and especially the new EU countries are a qualified source for such labor. Thus, the extension of this treaty facilitates job occupation and does not lead to job losses.
2. Lower wages - At least in the last two years since I have been living in Switzerland, the average wage is steadily increasing and not decreasing. Furthermore, there is high transparency regarding average levels of salaries depending on industry and qualification and a provision regarding minimum wage. Added to this, the Romanian and Bulgarian citizen that SVP is afraid of (aka the low qualified) do not compete for the same jobs as the Swiss. Thus, the extension of the free movement of persons positively affects the labor market and not negatively in the medium and long run.
3. Empty accounts of the Agency for Jobless - In line with the argumentation at point 2, the free movement of persons through more job occupation brings additional revenues to the Agency for Jobless. Furthermore, even if on short - term more persons from the two countries will be tempted to move to Switzerland, and thus the costs might increase short term, they will be out-weighted by the additional revenue from new occupied jobs.
4. Ruined social security - Even if theoretically more immigrants increases the need for social security, the pile of documents necessary for applying for this is so big and the process so complicated that few of the immigrants are able to make such requests. As will be discussed below, in order for everyone (EU and Switzerland) to win, what Switzerland should do is cooperate and not close itself. Remember the prisoner's dilemma.
5. Increased criminality - It is true that more persons will be tempted to go to Switzerland. However, even now it is possible to enter Switzerland without a visa if you stay less than three months. And I doubt that those categories of people that SVP is afraid of will ever state now that they want to stay longer. Consequently, it depends on the check control at the borders whether they allow those categories of people to enter Switzerland or if they submit them to a harsher control. Furthermore, through collaboration with the Romanian and Bulgarian authorities, the criminals could be tracked easier and their liberty of movement restricted. However, what I cannot agree with is for an entire nation to suffer because of some pick pocket criminals or beggars which are unrepresentative for the entire population.
6. Decreased democracy - On February the 8th, Swiss will have to vote for two things: to prolongs the existing free movement treaty with the EU and to extend it to Romania and Bulgaria, the two new EU countries. As the two countries are already EU members, it is actually one issue to be voted for, and that is the prolongement of the treaty. Thus, there are no two different issues to be discussed and thus one vote is enough.
7. Pressure from the EU and the Swiss Parliament - SVP suggests a separation of the voting in two issues: prolongement of the treaty as it is valid now, and as a different issue the extension of the treaty to Romania and Bulgaria. However, as argued above, to restrict the rights of two EU countries only because they are new is hazardous. Other solutions should be found to fight against the small criminality. In this, cooperation and not isolation is the solution.
All in all, the arguments brought about by the SVP are light hearted, to say at least. Their overall position is against EU and for a closed Switzerland, which is an undesired situation economically speaking. See my post on "Switzerland closes itself again" for additional arguments regarding this topic as well as the following links:
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