"The EU has warned Switzerland that its decision to impose new restrictions immigrants from Eastern and Central European countries is in "breach" of a free movement treaty.
Switzerland, which is not an EU country, has a special agreement that allows Swiss people to benefit from Europe's open borders travel zone. In return, the Swiss are supposed not to discriminate against immigrants from any EU country, with the exception of time-limited restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians.
Until last year, Switzerland had a quota of 2,000 residency permits per year for citizens of Eastern and Central European countries, which joined the EU in 2004. Over the last year, since scrapping the quotas, Switzerland has granted 6,000 permits to nationals of the eight countries – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The increase in permits, in a country where immigration is deeply controversial, led to the Swiss government deciding on Wednesday has decided to invoke a "safeguard clause" to impose new restrictions."
