BBC: Switzerland to limit immigration from all EU states
The Swiss government is to limit immigration from all EU states from May for a period of one year, in a move criticised by Brussels.
When it signed up to the freedom of movement rules in 1999, the country claimed the right enact a "safeguard clause" if the annual influx of workers from countries exceeded a certain number. (Is this like a Bush 'signing statement' which is supposed to mean that a law is valid but we are only enforcing the parts of it that we like.)
In a statement from her office, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the new quotas disregarded "the great benefits that the free movement of persons brings to the citizens of both Switzerland and the EU".
The Swiss government has come under pressure from both the right-wing People's Party which says immigration has reached unsustainable levels, our correspondent says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22285886
Another victory for the "right-wing People's Party" in Switzerland.
The country has the right to withdraw from any treaty that it has signed, but that does not seem to be what they are doing. Apparently the Swiss government likes the idea of its citizens being able to live and work anywhere in Europe, so they don't propose withdrawing from the Schengen agreement. They are just "temporarily suspending" the right of other Europeans to do the same in Switzerland. Kind of having your cake and eating it, too. 
A common conservative position on international agreements seems to be: "We may sign treaties with you, but we only plan to follow the parts that we like. We expect you to follow the letter of the treaty, though, or we would not have gone to all the trouble to negotiate it with you."
