Switzerland seeking numerous agreements with Malta

In a two-day visit to Malta, President of the Swiss coalition Johann Schneider-Ammann brought forward issues of major discussion with several people of interest.

Schneider-Ammann expressed the importance of reorganising Switzerland's relationship with the EU.

“Switzerland may not be in the European Union, but with Malta’s Presidency of the European Council around the corner, we want to become better integrated in the discussions,” he said, sitting down with Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola at San Anton Palace.

Another issue of importance to Schneider-Ammann was the issue of the Swiss Franc and its value. Lastly, he mentioned the importance in this day and age of digitalisation of industrialisation.

Schneider-Ammann proposed a discussion on these issues, saying that the two countries had problems in common.

In response to this, economy minister Chris Cardona agreed that very informative discussions were possible because both countries, in spite of having very different histories, climates and cultures, had a lot in common. "The issues you have brought up today show us that we have common goals,” Cardona said to the President of the Swiss coalition. “It is especially our concern since Malta will take over the presidency of the European council soon," he said.

Cardona added that because of the prominent position that Brexit and the us elections will take, people will not feature in discussions as much as one would have wished.

"Immigration is of particular interest to Malta, and it needs to be addressed humanely, but we must also look at it from an advantageous standpoint. In other words, we must look at how we can utilise migrants," Cardona said.

Cardona picked up on coalition President's comment on industry, and commented that the manufacturing industry is in fact Malta’s main contributor to economic growth, not tourism. "We have even developed niche markets, from heavy production to computer chips," he added.

"Tourism faces challenges due to Brexit. The UK made up 35% of our market, and the decline in the value of the pound is expected to have an impact on our tourism,” Cardona said, adding that despite this, Malta still registered 10% growth in tourism this month when compared to the corresponding month last year.

Education and employment minister Evarist Bartolo said that Malta has had an excellent relationship with Switzerland. “We have our relationship with Switzerland to thank for our industrial industry. The industrial electronics sector trained several engineers, and this served as a launchpad for industrialisation and the move of the electronics industry to Malta.”

Earlier today, Schneider-Ammann told members of the press that he expects issues such as migration to be addressed seriously during Malta’s presidency, and that he came to Malta to present a plan to the government.

"I stress that employment and prospects for youths are important. The better we manage these prospects, the less the risk that they feel they find themselves in unwanted dangerous situations. Another thing that is important for my country, is to make sure that you know your neighbours. The better we know each other, the better we can support each other and lower the risk of finding ourselves in uncontrolled frustration based situations. We have to find a solution regarding the free movement of persons and respect the will of the Swiss population in 2014, that we should steer the immigration on our own. We need to find a solution which is acceptable for both sides, European Union and Switzerland," Schneider-Ammann.

President Johann Schneider-Ammann is the head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.