(MENAFN- Swissinfo)
Livia Leu explains her decision to journalists in the parliament building in Bern on Wednesday © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer
State Secretary Livia Leu, Switzerland's top negotiator with the European Union, will become Swiss ambassador to Germany at her own request, the government has announced.
This content was published on May 10, 2023 May 10, 2023 Keystone-SDA/ts She will serve as state secretary until the end of August. The talks with the EU will not be affected by this change, it said in a statementexternal link on Wednesday. In Berlin she will replace Paul Seger, who is retiring.
Leu, 62, has been in charge of talks with the EU since autumn 2020. Her term of office also saw the breakdown of negotiations on an institutional framework agreement with the EU in 2021, when Switzerland unilaterally walked away from talks.
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Since then, Leu and her team have been conducting exploratory talks with the EU. At the end of March the government announced that the key parameters of a negotiating mandate would be drawn up by the end of June.
The EU Commission said it had taken note of the announcement. Asked by a journalist whether this change might have an unfavourable impact on the ongoing exploratory talks, an EU Commission spokesperson said it was up to the Swiss government to decide who should lead the talks on Switzerland's behalf.
“However, our goal remains the same,” he said.“The EU wants to end the exploratory talks as soon as possible and start negotiations.” They want to have concluded the talks by the summer of 2024, he said.“We're doing everything we can to complete the process by then.”
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