The EU Programmes Agreement (EUPA) governs Switzerland's participation in EU programmes, namely Horizon Europe, Euratom, ITER, Digital Europe, Erasmus+ and EU4Health. The EUPA was initialled in Brussels on 2 April by the two chief negotiators for the overall Switzerland-EU package, Patric Franzen and Richard Szostak, as well as by the two lead negotiators for the EUPA, Michael Gerber from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and Signe Ratso from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.

The EUPA will only come into force once the overall Switzerland-EU package has been ratified. However, it can be applied in advance, which would afford Switzerland provisional association to Horizon Europe, the Euratom programme and the Digital Europe Programme with retroactive effect from 2025, as well as to ITER from 2026 and Erasmus+ from 2027. For that to happen the EUPA must be signed by this November, i.e. before the signing of the remaining elements of the Switzerland-EU package. The EUPA nevertheless remains part of the overall package in terms of ratification proceedings. Participation in the EU4Health programme is planned when the Health Agreement comes into force as part of the package.

Researchers and innovators in Switzerland have had access to almost all calls for proposals relating to Horizon Europe, the Euratom programme and the Digital Europe Programme since the beginning of this year as part of the transitional arrangements. However, in order for them to receive their share of the project costs from the European Commission, a retroactive association as of 1 January 2025 is necessary. Once the EUPA has been signed, Switzerland will transfer the mandatory contribution for participation in the 2025 programme year to the EU.

Initialling

Initialling is defined as the approval of a contractual text by appending initials. The negotiators thereby confirm that the text corresponds to the results of the negotiations. After initialling, the two parties sign the agreement, which is done by the Federal Council on the Swiss side, followed by ratification, which involves Parliament and a possible referendum. The text of the EUPA will be published in the coming weeks.

Switzerland and EU initial agreement on programmes