Compass Initiative: Who Really Waited Too Long?

The Compass Initiative is being blamed for arriving too late, but guest columnist Alfred Gantner says the accusation gets the timing wrong. The initiative’s retroactive clause may be legally problematic, he writes, yet the Federal Council’s own message to Parliament came later than it should have.

The initiative’s central demand is that any vote on new agreements with the European Union require a double majority, from both the people and the cantons. The Federal Council wants a simple popular majority instead. If the initiative passes, its retroactive clause would require the EU treaty vote to be annulled if it had taken place under the simpler rule.

The decision to launch the initiative came in winter 2023, after Switzerland and the EU reached their “Common Understanding.” Formal negotiations began on March 18, 2024. The signature campaign started on Oct. 1 that year, before the negotiations had fully clarified the substance of the deal. The material negotiations concluded on Dec. 20, 2024, but only fact sheets, not the complete treaty texts, were released at that stage.

The full 1,889 pages of treaty text appeared on June 13, 2025. Three months later, the initiative had gathered 140,347 signatures and was submitted. The organizers used 11 of the legally available 18 months, submitting the initiative six months before the signing ceremony in Brussels and three months before the consultation report. Gantner argues that Compass/Europa acted as soon as it had enough facts to do so responsibly, and moved unusually quickly for a popular initiative.