Swiss-Italian ties could be at risk after a referendum in the border canton of Ticino backed measures to protect the jobs of local residents, Italy's foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni warned on Monday.
"This referendum against cross-border workers will have no practical effect for now. But Swiss-EU relations are at risk without free circulation of people," Italy's foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted on Monday.
Ironically, the most vocal Italian critic of the Swiss result was Roberto Maroni, the anti-immigrant governor of the Lombardy region. He complained the vote would harm Italians who work in Ticino and vowed to protect their rights.
Fifty-eight percent of Ticino voters backed Sunday's referendum, initiated by the ultra-conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to limit European Union workers in Switzerland.
The ability of EU citizens to move in and Switzerland freely is part of an EU-Swiss agreement signed in 1999, and Brussels has been working with the small-but-wealthy Alpine state for several months to find a way to apply a Swiss referendum from 2014 capping immigration.
The EU's executive commission also criticised the Ticino referendum result.
The "vote will not make the already difficult talks any easier," said spokeswoman Margaritis Schinas.
The EU is keen to make Switzerland stick to its bilateral agreements amid fears that any concessions could set a precedent for negotiations with London after the UK Brexit vote in June.
Any agreement on immigration would have to be endorsed by all EU member countries.
Italian-speaking Ticino, which has a population of 350,000, is the most exposed of Switzerland’s 26 cantons to foreign workers, with more than 62,000 crossing the border daily to work locally.
