European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Photo: Reuters

Switzerland stands to lose more than the EU from a vote to restrict immigration because it cannot enjoy all the benefits of the world’s biggest market without reciprocal access, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday.

In an interview for a Reuters Euro Zone Summit, Barroso said the Swiss referendum vote to restore quotas for migrants in breach of an agreement with the EU would have “serious consequences” for relations between the wealthy Alpine nation and the 28-member union that surrounds it.

While he did not spell out any specific sanctions, Barroso implied that Swiss people could lose the right to live and work in the EU, including neighbouring Germany, France and Italy, and Swiss companies might also face obstacles. “In terms of reciprocity, it’s not appropriate that Swiss citizens have unrestricted freedom of movement in the European Union – I think there are 430,000 here, which in relative terms is more than the one million European citizens that are in Switzerland,” he said.

Switzerland has a population of eight million, one quarter foreigners, while the EU has 500 million.

It’s not fair that one country has all the advantages

“It’s not fair that one country has all these advantages and does not want to give partners the same kind of advantages,” Barroso said.

It was up to the Swiss government to find a way to turn the vaguely worded referendum decision into law while respecting its agreements with the EU.

Swiss businesses said the vote to reintroduce immigration quotas, backed by a margin of just 19,526 voters, threatened an economy that relies on the EU for nearly a fifth of its workers. Switzerland is home to food and beverage giant Nestle, drugmakers Novartis and Roche, global banks UBS and Credit Suisse, and commodities dealers such as Glencore Xtrata and Louis Dreyfus Commodities.