Swiss executives ask for new treaty with EU

A survey of 2,500 Swiss companies by UBS bank found 65% of chief executives believed there would be further withdrawals from the embattled union, after Britain became the first nation in EU history to rescind its membership.

The poll underlined the importance that Swiss business leaders assign to relations with their biggest export market even as Britain's vote to leave the bloc undermines some EU cohesion.

The survey released on Monday showed 65 percent of respondents want an institutional framework agreement with the EU, 27 percent favour keeping the existing bilateral accords, and 8 percent back scrapping the bilateral agreements.

The existing accords ease Swiss access to the single market in return for letting EU citizens move freely to Switzerland. The Swiss parliament last year dodged a conflict with Brussels by adopting a system that aims to curb immigration by giving local people first crack at open jobs, skirting voters' demand for outright quotas in a binding 2014 referendum.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last week after meeting Swiss President Doris Leuthard that a treaty could be ready by year's end.

Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but is tied to the bloc through a series of bilateral agreements, including the free movement of people, which allows the Alpine nation access to the European single market. 

Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter has said pushing through a new treaty – as demanded by Brussels and EU members – is politically impossible in Switzerland at the moment, but the government is still leaving the option open. Of the 8.3 million inhabitants of Switzerland, some 1.4 million are from the EU. After Italians, Germans are the second-largest group with around 300,000.