Federal Councilors Simonetta Sommaruga and Guy Parmelin met with the German Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday evening before the official start of the WEF. Both sides agreed to help each other in gas emergencies. Negotiations are to begin immediately. In addition, Habeck promised to restart talks on the Switzerland-EU dossier in Brussels.
Swiss Federal Councilors Guy Parmelin and Simonetta Sommaruga, together with German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, announce the results of their 45-minute meeting at the WEF in Davos.
The conversation between the two Federal Councilors and their German counterpart lasted forty-five minutes. Afterwards, the Minister of Energy in particular was delighted with the outcome of these talks: “We have good news to report in the gas sector. We have agreed that we will start negotiations, immediately, for a solidarity agreement between Germany and Switzerland with the aim that we can support each other in an emergency,” Sommaruga told the media representatives present.
Switzerland still interested in win-win solution with EU
She thanked Habeck for the openness and the opportunity to support each other in a challenging situation. The currently difficult relationship between Switzerland and the EU was also discussed. Economics Minister Parmelin emphasized that Switzerland is still interested in a win-win solution for both sides. However, he also expressed his concern to the German Economics Minister that certain agreements – including the mutual recognition of products in the medtech industry – were eroding and were already having negative effects on the movement of goods with neighboring federal states.
“It is urgent that we find a pragmatic solution. The situation is unsatisfactory,” said Parmelin. Habeck described it as a “great honor” to be able to start his stay in Davos with talks with the two Federal Councilors. The talks were open, focused and very specific. “More concrete than one might expect from the first courtesy call.”
Switzerland-EU: German Economics Minister wants to help
On the question of an institutional agreement, which Habeck described as a “sensitive issue”, the German economy minister said that it was in the interest of both sides to have an automated framework for the many contracts between Switzerland and the EU that are automatically updated.
«This is a topic that affects the cultures of Switzerland and Europe to a special degree and it is therefore not an easy topic. But just because it’s not easy, not solving it is unacceptable. I’m going to Brussels on Tuesday with a handful of concrete proposals. Maybe this conversation can make a small contribution to getting these conversations back on track.” When asked, Habeck did not want to reveal which suggestions were in his luggage.