Participation in Horizon package
Berlin is committed to Switzerland in Brussels
German Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recently spoke to EU Commission Vice President Maro Sefcovic about Switzerland. Berlin wants negotiations with Switzerland on the Horizon package to begin quickly.
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This was announced by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. The Horizon package includes the EU framework programs in the field of research and innovation. In Germany’s opinion, the EU Commission should also quickly start negotiations with Switzerland on the “Erasmus plus” education program, wrote the FDFA.
According to the FDFA, Berlin is also “striving for a solution to the pending questions in the field of medtech”. Since the EU no longer updates the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (MRA) due to unresolved institutional issues, the Swiss medical device industry has lost its privileged access to the EU internal market.
It is to be welcomed “when EU member states express their own interest in a regulated relationship between the EU and Switzerland to the EU Commission,” the FDFA continued.
The German Foreign Office justified Germany’s commitment to Switzerland in Brussels to Keystone-SDA with the “close social and economic ties”.
That is why the relationship between the two countries is particularly affected “by the unilateral termination of negotiations on the institutional framework agreement with the EU”.
Stable and legally secure trade and economic relations between the EU and Switzerland are of great importance for Germany, the Foreign Office continued.
(SDA)
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