Brussels has lambasted a decision by the Swiss government to reintroduce quotas for residence and work permits on citizens of some EU member states.

Although the decision targets citizens of members that joined the EU in 2004, both Malta and Cyprus were left out and their citizens will still be eligible for full residence and work permits in Switzerland.

However, from the beginning of May, there will be just 2,000 places a year for citizens from Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Though acknowledging the “added value” that immigration from the EU injected in the Swiss economy, its government decided it had to limit the number of EU citizens entering the country because it had been overwhelmed over the past few years.

In the past year, a total of 6,000 citizens from the eight countries mentioned have been granted residence permits by Switzerland, something which evidently is irritating the Swiss. With a total population of eight million, there are about 1.1 million EU citizens with residence permits in the country.

Quoting a “safeguard clause” in the association agreement between Switzerland and the EU to justify the quotas, the Swiss decision reflects a longstanding uneasiness about immigration.

There are concerns about integrating workers and employers’ compliance with wage and labour requirements, along with a desire to hold unemployment at three per cent even during a time of economic turmoil.

However, the Swiss decision, dubbed as “discriminatory”, clearly irked the top echelons of the EU, which have called on Switzerland to reverse its decision.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said she considered the measure to be “in breach of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons as amended by the protocol of 2004” which did not allow for any differentiation between EU citizens.