Switzerland Prepared to Shun EU to Impose Migrant Quotas

Switzerland will draw up its own plans for limiting the flow of migrants from the European Union if it can not reach an agreement with Brussels on the issue before a February 2017 deadline, the foreign minister said Monday.

The two sides are deadlocked on how to implement a binding Swiss referendum of February 2014 in favor of immigration quotas that would violate a bilateral pact guaranteeing freedom of movement for EU citizens.

The February 2014 referendum, spearheaded by the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party (SVP), has jeopardized a host of other Swiss-EU treaties that govern bilateral economic ties with the country's largest trading partner. The referendum must go into effect by February next year and, with no agreement with the EU yet, Switzerland is preparing to take unilateral action.

"In all likelihood, we will go to parliament with a unilateral clause," Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter told reporters in Geneva after addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Switzerland's cabinet is expected to send a draft law to parliament Friday, but Burkhalter said Switzerland still wanted to find a common solution with the EU.