Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-24-Speech-4-070-000"

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"en.20120524.6.4-070-000"2
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"− Mr President, I fully agree with the remarks of my colleagues from the EPP and S&D, as there is strong cross-party agreement on this matter. I, on behalf of ALDE, strongly regret that the Swiss authorities have decided to re-establish these quantitative restrictions – these quotas – on residence permits for nationals of the A8 Member States a year after the transitional restrictions expired. I absolutely agree with Mr Trzaskowski that the decision to target these quotas only at eight Member States is discriminatory, and therefore unlawful. There is absolutely no legal basis, as Ms Gebhardt said, for any national differentiation in the existing treaties between Switzerland and the EU, and specifically in the 1999 agreement safeguard clause. I agree with Catherine Ashton’s statement that the quotas are in breach of the agreement on the free movement of persons. There are approximately one million EU nationals in Switzerland among a total of nearly 1.8 million foreigners, but my understanding is that until last year the Swiss Government had only awarded 2 000 residence permits to nationals from the A8, so I really do not see how this is a massive problem. This is on top of the fact that it is illegal to differentiate. I am sure that Switzerland appreciates that the free movement of persons is of huge advantage to the Swiss economy, making a crucial contribution to the creation and preservation of jobs. ALDE believes that this measure is neither economically justified by the labour market situation, nor by the number of EU citizens actually seeking residence in Switzerland. Mention has been made of the wider problems of free movement of service providers, implementation of the free market and burdens on SMEs, so I am afraid there is much to discuss with Switzerland."@en1
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