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INTERVIEW WITH JACQUES DE WATTEVILLE, SWISS AMBASSADOR TO THE EU : "LONG-TERM VISION" GUIDES SWITZERLAND'S TIES WITH EU.

Article Excerpt
Taxation, agriculture, electricity: hot dossiers piling up on the negotiating table between Switzerland and the EU. And the Union appears more and more inflexible. So, how to move forward? Europolitics asked the Swiss Ambassador to the EU, Jacques de Watteville.

Taxation

The 27 member states are slow in agreeing to announce a cease-fire with Switzerland on the front of cantonal taxation, as the European Commission hopes to do. Is it a sign of defiance towards Berne?a

It is all linked to the process. The European Commission is currently in talks with the member states. And some of them think that the solution that has emerged does not take their preoccupations sufficiently into account. The concern, particularly in a time of economic crisis, is to avoid business moving away. In this context, the independent reform of the taxation of businesses that Switzerland envisages should contribute to maintaining a competitive and attractive economic area. Furthermore, there is one technical problem: the European Commission has reached the end of its mandate. We will probably have to wait for the new Commission to start work, in early 2010, before we can finally close this dossier.a

Will we also have to wait for the end of the taxation amnesty operation started by Italy quite aggressively?a

It is possible that that will also play a role. In...

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