MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The Swiss politician observed that it was very difficult to apply the EU quota regime and maintain good relations with the European Union. Many people who voted for the immigration curbs are in favor of good ties with Europe.
“We have to find a way to apply this article, if possible to suppress it, so that we can continue to have good relationships with the EU. That is the main purpose on which we are now working hard,” Luc Recordon said. “This is the main issue, it has to be cancelled or we have to find a very smooth solution that the EU can accept.”
Switzerland is home to some 8 million people, of whom 24 percent are foreign-born, with EU migrants making up the largest demographic within that group.
“I consider we are able to receive more people, we have more time than the others to prepare, we are awaiting that and I believe we can do our good part in proportion to our economic force,” Luc Recordon said.
The lawmaker said that a country’s gross national product (GNP) must be used as a metric to calculate how many refugees it can accept.
“Switzerland has big GNP, even though we are only 8 million people living in Switzerland, we can do more,” Recordon said.
The lawmaker observed that, during the Balkan crisis, Swiss people proved they were friendly to refugees, an attitude he says continues today.
Recordon pointed out that along with Germany, the European country that has received the highest number of refugees in recent months, Switzerland has a rather old population, so it can benefit from an influx of young people to “balance our society and our economy.”
