EU awaiting Swiss government response on migration referendum

The European Union is in a "wait-and-see" mode on how the Swiss government will react to Sunday's referendum in Switzerland in favour of imposing quotas on EU migrants."There is no immediate consequences on our relations, but the ball is in the court of the Swiss authorities," an EU source told journalists in Brussels Monday evening."We are waiting for Swiss authorities to tell us how they will deal with this issue," said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The source clarified that if the Swiss government will enact a legislation to put limits on EU migrants, it "would potentially have very serious consequences for our relationship across the board." The weekend's referendum gives the government three years time to introduce a law to curb EU immigrants in the Switzerland.The Swiss government is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss the outcome of the vote.The EU argues that free movement of people is one of the biggest achievements of the European integration process and it will not allow any backtracking on this success.Switzerland is not an EU member but it is bound to the EU by a number of agreements including trade, education and research and all of them could be frozen if Bern decides to enact a law to limit immigration from the EU.Switzerland is also a member of the visa-free Schengen zone and its membership in the zone could also be effected, warned the source.About one million EU citizens live and work in Switzerland and another 230, 000 cross the border daily for work. About 430,000 Swiss live in the EU."It will make their lives more complicated and damage both sides," said the source. The right-wing populist Swiss People's Party that called for the referendum claims that every year 80,000 EU citizens migrate to Switzerland which has a population of eight million. Hence there has to be a quota system to put a brake to the EU migrants, it argues.