On February 9 of this year, a referendum in favour of immigration quotas was approved by a slim majority of 50.3% of popular votes by Swiss citizens.

The new law will force the Swiss government to establish a maximum number of migrants allowed in the country per year. This includes British and EU citizens, as well as citizens from neighbouring countries Italy, France and Germany who are permanently employed in Switzerland and commute to the country on an everyday basis. Several have been comparing these results to the referendum held a few years ago in which Swiss citizens voted against joining the EU.

More debated than the slim margin of results, however, have been the consequences that this new law will bring with it for EU-Switzerland relations. Although few expected the popular approval of this bill, the European Union had expressed its disapproval of such a proposal prior to the vote and warned the Swiss government of a potential deterioration of their relationship if such a reform was approved.

Warnings against this law were not only issued from EU political entities. Several businesses and Swiss government leaders were vocal about their discontent with the UDC (Democratic Union of Centre) party's proposal. A great majority of workers in Switzerland's biggest companies come from abroad, and several of these companies fear a potential decrease in their competitiveness coming as a result of their inability to keep hiring top-talent from outside of Switzerland. 

The Swiss Federal government, along with the Swiss Bankers' Association and business leaders across the country fear reciprocal actions from the European Union. On the other hand, the right-wing Populist Party which tabled this reform has managed to convince a majority of Swiss citizens that it was the right thing to do. Their main argument in favour of this reform is grounded on the fear of losing Alpine culture and that of collapse of housing, health, and other public services coming as a result of "foreign invasion".

An argument stating that foreigners are taking away jobs requiring high-skilled workers that comes coupled with businesses' outspoken distress at their potential inability to find qualified workforce should, in my opinion, be taken with a pinch of salt. If businesses are concerned of the possibility of losing competitive advantage due to their inability to hire workers from abroad, then one should wonder if foreign workers have in fact been filling a shortage of high skilled workforce in the country.

Regardless of the reasons behind this law, it is a fact that it violates the treaty of free movement between EU and Switzerland. This means that it is now up to the European Union to decide the extent to which this violation will affect other treaties. Trade relations, for instance, are likely to suffer. This will cause problems to the Swiss economy by limiting its access to the European single market, the current destination of about half of its exports.

On the other hand, Switzerland's participation in European exchange programs such as the new Erasmus+ will be revised, limiting the opportunities available to young Swiss citizens to engage in meaningful learning programmes across the EU.

As a result of a failure to grant work permits to citizens from Croatia, the EU has also halted talks with Switzerland concerning EU-funded research and education programmes. This means that not only Erasmus, but Horizon 2020 and other EU funded research programs as well are now conditional on an agreement granting EU citizen's free movement to Switzerland.

While the extent to which EU relations with Switzerland will be affected as a result of its recent decisions is yet to be determined, the degree of deterioration can most certainly be affected by Swiss actions in the next few months. Leniency can come with a reversal of their actions to avoid a permanent violation of the free movement agreements, as well as with a fulfilment of Switzerland's promise to grant work permits to Croatian citizens.

David Casa is head of the PN EP delegation