On April the first, 2006 the first phase of the Swiss-EU Bilateral agreement about Swiss residency becomes effective.

The 10 new countries concerned are: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus,  Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary.

Citizens of these countries now benefit from the same conditions as other EU-15 citizens if they want to retire in Switzerland.

Permits for self-employment are now possible also for citizens of those 10 new countries, but during the transitional period and until 2011 the procedure will be more complicated than for other Europeans. In particular there is an annual quota that limits the number of permits that can be issued.