Amherd (left) talked to von der Leyen about the ongoing negotiations.
Keystone-SDA
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Swiss President Viola Amherd and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have met and talked about the ongoing negotiations between Bern and Brussels.
Amherd also used the meeting on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Budapest on Thursday for further bilateral talks.
“The Commission is still interested in concluding the talks by the end of this year,” Amherd told Swiss journalists in Budapest. Switzerland is interested in moving forward, but the result must also be right, she said.
“We did not negotiate, the chief negotiators do that,” Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, She did not elaborate on the three contentious issues of the free movement of people, the cohesion payment and the electricity agreement. She merely said that the government had discussed a mechanism for cohesion payments on Wednesday, but without any concrete figures.
Amherd met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for a “handshake”, as she put it. She had already met him in the summer on the Bürgenstock in Switzerland and in Blenheim, UK, at the previous summit of the EPC. It is always good to maintain such contacts, she said.
Amherd also spoke to the president of Cyprus. They discussed the conflict on the island. In this context, Switzerland was prepared to offer to host talks, Amherd said. In return, the Cypriot president said that Cyprus would support Switzerland in Europe when it takes over the rotating presidency of the EU in 2026.
Cyprus has been divided for 50 years. In the south of the island is the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, and in the north is Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey.
A further meeting also took place with the president of Kosovo, according to Amherd.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
Demonstrators rally in support of Swiss steelworks Gerlafingen
This content was published on
Around 1,000 people demonstrated in front of the Stahl Gerlafingen steel plant on Saturday to demand the preservation of the site.
Swiss village Brienz to be evacuated due to rockslide risk
This content was published on
Local authorities announced that up to 1.2 million cubic metres of rock could move towards the mountain village of Brienz. The municipality is preparing a preventive evacuation.
Swiss businesses losing billions due to Temu and Shein
This content was published on
Swiss businesses are losing billions of francs a year as a result of the spread of Chinese online platforms Temu and Shein, says the director of the federation of Swiss retailers.
Number of Swiss armed forces exceeds specified limit
This content was published on
The Swiss armed forces had an effective headcount of around 147,000 as of March 1, 2024. This exceeds the upper limit of 140,000 specified in the army organisation by 5%.
More than 400,000 cross-border commuters now work in Switzerland
This content was published on
More than half of all cross-border commuters were resident in France (around 57%). Large proportions also lived in Italy (23%) and Germany (around 16%).
