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Moving closer, yet staying `neutral'

The Confederation of Switzerland, which joined the United Nations only in 2002 and has kept out of the European Union, voted recently to allow citizens from the 10 new E.U. member-states to work in the country. This is a rebuff to the right-wing chauvinism of the Swiss People's Party (SPP), which imposed a referendum despite a bilateral agreement that guarantees all E.U. member-states access to Switzerland's labour market. The 1999 accord with the E.U., then comprising 15 countries, was ratified in 2000; its extension to the eight Eastern and Central European countries, besides Cyprus and Malta, should have been automatic. However, the ultra-nationalist SPP, which emerged as the single largest party in the Swiss Parliament in 2003, managed to mobilise the stipulated 100,000 signatures of citizens for a referendum in order to block the entry of low cost labour from the 10 States by whipping up a fear psychosis among the Swiss. By returning a 56 per cent vote in the September referendum, the Swiss have demonstrated remarkable far-sightedness — rising above the anti-foreigner and anti-E.U. sentiment. In a similar display of sagacity in the June 2005 referendum, they ratified the Schengen Agreement to join the passport-free travel zone that includes 13 E.U. countries plus Norway and Iceland. The June vote also endorsed the Dublin Convention, which allows cross-border police cooperation in tracking crime.

However, the issue of comprehensive integration with the E.U. continues to be viewed with strong reservation in Switzerland — as evidenced by the firm rejection in the 2001 referendum of the proposal for the commencement of entry talks. This tendency towards political isolation is underpinned by a 500-year tradition of `neutrality,' which essentially means refraining from military involvement in the affairs of other countries. Short of this, Switzerland's engagement with Europe has expanded through the bilateral route in trade, science and technology, environment protection, and the prevention of cross-border crime. The latest instance of cooperation is Switzerland's participation in the agreement (under the E.U. Savings Tax Directive) to share secret information that would enable E.U. member-states to tax the incomes of savings their citizens held in Swiss bank accounts. Government and administrative circles in Switzerland appear to lean towards full E.U. membership in preference to lengthy negotiations to clinch each deal. However, an important lesson from Europe's experience, highlighted by the French and Dutch rejection of the constitution, is that eliciting popular support on all primary legislation is both unavoidable and a painfully long-drawn process. The uniquely Swiss feature of direct democracy where every major policy initiative can be put to popular vote implies that ceding decision-making to Brussels will be up against the weight of history and informed public opinion.

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