Swiss to UK: You’ll miss being at the EU table

Switzerland’s ambassador in Brussels says Britain might have a hard time thinking outside the bloc.

Switzerland has a warning for Brits thinking they can fall back on a special trade deal with the EU if they vote to leave the bloc: You will still have to play by the Union’s rules. 

Just like the British Euroskeptics who rail against the arrival of EU migrants in the U.K., the Swiss have also called for an immigration quota to restrict the number of EU citizens who can live in their country. But they also have a trade relationship with the EU that requires they respect the free movement of people.

Supporters of a British Out vote the June 23 referendum have suggested that the U.K. could forge a similar deal that would continue to give them access to the internal market even after Britain left the EU. Switzerland’s EU ambassador, Roberto Balzaretti, said Tuesday that it won’t be that easy.

“What they should know is the situation of Switzerland, being a member state is much more comfortable,” Balzaretti said during a dinner with reporters at his residence. “We don’t decide anything we apply.”

“Would Great Britain accept that they have to apply more or less the same rules? Maybe they can live with that,” he added.

The migration issue has long been controversial in Switzerland. More than 800,000 EU citizens have moved to the country in the past decade, and now make up 16 percent of its population of 8 million.

In February 2014, the Swiss people voted in a referendum for a measure that would cap the immigration of EU citizens to Switzerland. Under the provision, the Swiss have a three-year time limit to implement that quota, but their issue has been sidelined by the European Commission because of its political sensitivity during the Brexit debate.

“We will have to wait until June of this year because of this U.K. issue, because any concession would be pushed by the Out campaign as a reason to leave. ‘Look at the Swiss,’ they will say,” Balzaretti said, referring to advice he said Switzerland had received from the Commission.

Balzaretti added that if the Brits decide to leave the EU, the Swiss quota deal is dead in the water, as the EU will be occupied with the British issue.

“‘If the Brits leave, there is not time for you,’ they said,” he added.

Balzaretti said the Swiss also suffer because they have no say in other major policy decisions that affect them, such as the EU’s controversial migrant deal with Turkey. Under that proposed framework, the EU would lift visa restrictions on Turks traveling to Europe — a provision Switzerland, as a member of the Schengen zone, would have to comply with but cannot contest.

“The issue with Turkey, we haven’t seen that deal because we’re not at the table,” he said. “No one asked us what we think. We won’t have an agreement with Turkey.”

A majority of Swiss are opposed to EU membership, even if it would offer them a seat at the negotiating table. According to Balzaretti, Swiss citizens would like to see the Brits vote to leave because it would validate their own decision to stay out of the EU — and deal a political blow to the bloc.

“The majority of the Swiss would be happy for Great Britain to leave because they would see it as the end of the EU,” he said. “People are saying listen, we’re doing everything we want them to do, but they’re just not listening.”

He added, “You talk about Europe and you almost always add the word crisis.”