10 June 2010 - Moving to Switzerland
As the Federal Council announced on Wednesday, 26th May, the protective clause (so-called “Ventilklausel”) will not be applied for citizens from the old EU member states such as Germany from 1st June 2010.
The protective clause - belonging to the agreement on freedom of movement - allows Switzerland to introduce a one-way quota for a limited time period. Thereby, the free movement of persons from the 15 old EU member states would be restricted. Since June 2007, full freedom of movement applies for citizens of these states as well as of Cyprus and Malta.
However, in order to put this instrument into practice, the basis is lacking. In order to do so, the number of the residence permits and short-term residence permits issued in a certain year would have to exceed the average of the last three years by more than 10%.
The figures speak a different language. From June 2009 until the end of April 2010, the amount of short-term residence permits and of resident permits has decreased by 9.4 and 21.4 percent. Further, the situation on the Swiss job market has lately developed more positive than expected. Also due to this fact, a limitation of immigration is not necessary.
Already in 2009, the Federal Council had renounced in putting the protective clause into practice. The argumentation was that the immigration from EU states had not lead to an exclusion of the Swiss workforce.
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