The Swiss stock exchange risks not being treated equally as its European counterparts by the EU due to protracted negotiations about a far-reaching pact the Alpine nation and the surrounding union. The EU is tightening the screws.
A high-ranking Swiss delegation is set to meet representatives for the European Commission today to find a solution for the stock exchange, which is operated by SIX. The European Union threatened to lift the so-called equivalence by the end of 2018 because of what it sees as slow progress in the drafting of an institutional framework agreement between the EU and Switzerland.
The framework agreement is intended to take the place of a number of treaties sealed earlier and has already been the cause for heated political discussions between the anti-EU Swiss People’s Party and the parties, which favor close ties with the bloc.
The loss of the equivalence status would mean that the Swiss exchange would no longer be as easily accessible to European traders as it is today.
Window of Opportunity
The EU is putting pressure on Switzerland to get its act together. Margaritis Schinas, a spokesperson for the Commission told «Bloomberg» that the window of opportunity was closing and that there had been little progress recently.
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer last week said he hoped to find a solution soon. His man in Brussels is Roberto Balzaretti, who heads the negotiations with the union.
The 53-year-old former ambassador had started with high hopes but so far a solution has proofed elusive.
