83 posts
Does Switzerland get a new policy towards Europe?
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As EU leaders try to save the Euro and the European Union in 2011, Swiss politicians have been busy running a federal election on national issues. At last, a New Foreign Minister, Didier Burkhalter, has been elected. Will he be able to lead the Swiss...
Why can't we be more like Switzerland? | Peter Preston
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Wistful Tories look to Basel, and being the sort of nation that can define its own self-interest dailyBe careful what you wish for, even though the sceptics in Tory backrooms seem to have it all figured out. No euro, no zone, no ever greater union? N...
Swiss Election
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Switzerland – Stuck in the Middle? The elections for the national Swiss council took place on October 23 2011. What has changed and what can be expected from the “stubborn” country in the middle of Europe? This year, a modest but constant l...
The Swiss example – not what it seems
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At a debate on EU membership organised by the Spectator on 20 September (read a report here), leading eurosceptic Daniel Hannan MEP compared the UK unfavourably with Switzerland. The Swiss experience of non-membership of the EU, he said, has been m...
Mixed Signals from Karlsruhe, Clear Sign from Switzerland
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Two events this week could impact upon the EU debt crisis in significant ways. The first is the ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe that aid provided by Germany to indebted Eurozone states was in fact constitutional. The de...
Meeting in Berne
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The Executive Council (Regierungsrat) of the Canton of Berne invited Diana to a high-level meeting recently. The meeting, held in the city's Paul-Klee-Zentrum, was organised as part of a process for the Cantonal Government of Berne to gain a gre...
Switzerland: ”Improve EU relations” - but how?
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For the European Union a reality check, as good as good as they come: EU roars, but Switzerland not moved (3 January 2011). Official EU and Swiss positions The official views and expectations of the European Union with regard to Switzerland were defi...
EU roars, but Switzerland not moved
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Yesterday we looked at the fresh foreign policy position paper of one of the important Swiss political parties, FDP. Die Liberalen, which confirmed our picture that Switzerland is deeply dug in with its bilateral European policy credo: European Union...
European Union: The Swiss entrenched (FDP. The Liberals)
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Yesterday's blog post tried to be clear enough about official Swiss insistence on the bilateral nature of the relationship with the European Union: EU and Switzerland disagree on relationship (1 January 2011). If anyone needs convincing, Simon Gempe...
EU and Switzerland disagree on relationship
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As we saw in the previous blog entries 'EU relations with Switzerland: End of the road for bilateral model' (30 December 2010) and 'EU conclusions regarding Switzerland' (31 December 2010), the General Affairs Council (GAC) gave the impression that t...
EU conclusions regarding Switzerland
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Through legislation and jurisprudence the body of European Union law is in constant movement, but with Switzerland each relevant change has to be negotiated separately and every one of the 179 bilateral treaties administered. This is more cumbersome...
EU relations with Switzerland: End of the road for bilateral model
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The blog post 'Liechtenstein under EU pressure on taxation' (28 December 2010) only scratched the surface, but let us go into more depth regarding taxation issues when readers and I feel like it. Instead, we turn to Switzerland, the only European Fre...
A symbolic Swiss vote
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ZURICH – About a year after banning minarets, Swiss citizens went to the polls again last week. This time, they were asked to decide whether foreigners convicted of crimes should be expelled automatically. Fifty-three percent of those voting...
Is Switzerland becoming the black sheep of Europe?
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The Swiss People's Party may have scored another victory yesterday in their campaign against the "black sheep" within Swiss society, but judging by the reaction of the European press today it may be the Swiss themselves who are becoming the rea...
Switzerland: European Union playing seek
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Yesterday we looked at some issues between the European Union and Switzerland, but especially for useful information about where the relationship is going. On this count, the own-initiative resolution from the European Parliament was almost the only...
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them: European Union and Switzerland
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The relations between landlocked Switzerland and the surrounding European Union are special in many respects. Trade, transport, free movement including migration and cross-border work, banking (secrecy) and tax (evasion) are highly visible ingredient...
Multilingualism in Switzerland and Europe
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On 29 September, the British Council in collaboration with partners: the Institute of Multilingualism at Fribourg and Forum du Bilinguisme organised an afternoon event on multilingualism in Switzerland and Europe. Simon Brimblecombe, Deputy Directo...
Can Erol: First Round is Over: The desperate of all: France, Italy and Switzerland
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Italy’s Riccardo Montolivo (rear) reacts, after Italy’s missed goal chance, during their 2010 World Cup Group F soccer match against Slovakia at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg June 24, 2010. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon It was quite certain...
Hot tax row between Germany and Switzerland
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Here are only a few samples of what has become front page news in Germany, generating hundreds of newspaper articles. Deutsche Welle reports that a number of offers have been made to German authorities on Swiss banking data, although buying stolen da...
Tax matters for Switzerland and the European Union
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The basic positions on tax could hardly be more different: virtuous tax competition or criminal tax fraud? The official Swiss view is that tax competition is healthy. Not only do federalism and [direct] democracy promote sound public finances, but t...
No support to SWIFT last week - 23 votes in favour yesterday?
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Last week, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs met already to discuss the SWIFT agreement that it rejected yesterday with 29 votes against 23. In the Council report on last week's meeting it seems as if no...
EU and Switzerland: Bilateral treaties and challenges
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Since Switzerland is outside the European Union (EU) as well as the European Economic Area (EEA), the relations have been developed mainly on the basis of bilateral agreements. The Treaties Office of the European Commission’s DG External Relations...
EFTA member Switzerland outside EEA and EU
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The relationship between Switzerland and the European Union is of interest to governments, businesses and residents, including expats. Yesterday, in the Grahnlaw blog post Internal market: Switzerland at the heart of Europe? we highlighted the briefi...
Internal market: Switzerland at the heart of Europe?
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German government frets over morality of paying tax informer, reports Deutsche Welle (2 February 2010). Should Germany pay 2.5 million euros to buy stolen bank data of 1,500 people suspected of tax evasion? Geographically Switzerland is at the heart...
Switzerland minarets freedom Europe
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More to say about the Swiss minarets ban: The arguement that "we can't build churches in Saudi Arabia" is a lame-brained arguement!Good freedom -loving people need to wake up and oppose this ban and oppose the advance of the right-wing extremist part...
Vox Populi Vox Doh
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When the referendum in Switzerland banning the construction of minarets was hot news the blogosphere was full of cheers and boos. Two cheers that I noticed came from:- libertarians who were crying a victory for democracy and liberty (this here ex...
Guillaume Morand Swiss minaret ban
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A brave shoe chain owner, Guillaume Morand, protests against Swiss minaret ban and fights for religious freedom. Sometimes standing up for freedom is not easy, especially for religious freedom these days in Europe. However, one Swiss businessman has...
Swiss minarets, as seen from Turkey
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ANKARA — In Turkey, the Swiss referendum banning the building of new minarets is perceived as just another example of Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslims. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “This decision is primitive, ou...
Europe: is it Catholic? Well, it sure is anti-Islamic
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According to a survey conducted in 2005 by Eurostat, religion is a fundemental aspect of life for 53% of those asked. In general, 49.5% of European citizens are Catholic, 13.7% are Protestant, 8.6% are members of the Orthodox Church, 15.7% are Musli...
Minaret referendum updates (2)
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more about “Newsy | Swiss Move to Ban Minarets | …“, posted with vodpod Newsy.com videos analyze and synthesize news stories from multiple sources. Its unique method of showing how different media cover the news helps view...
It wasn’t a vote about architecture
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The timing could not have been better. The fallout of the Conservative decision not to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty now that it has come into force, and not to hold a referendum on any other European question either until new proposals com...
Of minarets and democracy
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In Switzerland, further construction of minarets has been banned after a referendum on the issue (57% in favour). This seems to strike at the heart of many debates: the separation of church and state, between the religious and the secular, on referen...
Minaret-banning Switzerland chairing the Council of Europe
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Twittering Julien Frisch was the first to make me aware of the matter, and later I saw Carl Bildt mention it on his blog, Alla dessa dagar. I decided to take a look at the web pages of the Council of Europe: Switzerland has taken over the chairmanshi...
Da ist wahrscheinlich ein gott (aber natürlich nur ein christliches gott)
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The Swiss referendum banning the construction of minarets has caused a load of hand-wringing. Why? Of course it’s absolutely wrong to deny freedom of religious expression, and the outcome of the vote is wrong. I’m no fan of any relig...
Mosquérade suisse
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Mosquérade suisse Les minarets aux cabinets ! La légendaire neutralité helvète a du plomb dans l’aile : lors du référendum du 30 novembre, une majorité de petits Suisses (57,5%)...
Deplorable result in Swiss referendum
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Yesterday, about 57 % of the Swiss voted in favour of a ban on building more minarets in their country. In my view, the result of the referendum will send a negative signal to everyone working for freedom of religion, inter-religious dialougue and in...
Ethics and law of Swiss minaret ban
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First, a few thoughts on how we should try to approach difficult questions concerning freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The general understanding in Europe has been that there are universal rights. In Europe the secular state does its best...
The Swiss Ban on Minarets: Legal Implications
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There are many reactions to the results from the referendum in Switzerland that tries to impose a ban on further construction of minarets in the country. However, most of them are (understandably) quite emotional. From a political perspective a lot m...
Swiss No to minarets ─Yes to what?
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Among eurobloggers at least Julien Frisch and Gulf Stream Blues have already reacted clearly against the Swiss referendum banning minarets. Erkan’s Field Diary says it at least as forcefully in a blog post he has promised to update soon: In Switzer...
In Switzerland, Fascism seems to be getting ground…
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last updated: 30 Nov 2009- 02:30 Even fundamentalist Islamic countries did not vote about the shape of religious institutions… It is a sad day. The referendum result made me really angry first but now sadness prevails. This is such a stupid ref...
Switzerland forbids minarets in referendum: What a sad day!
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Europe in the 21st century is a multicultural continent, with multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religions societies (including non-religious people) - and Switzerland doesn't seem to belong to Europe today. The Swiss have shown that they truly...
Swiss minaret referendum today.
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Swiss Minaretxia from tabsir.net Cows will no longer give milk in Switzerland if minarets are allowed to stand. The rightwing political parties in Switzerland are up in arms, preparing for a vote on Sunday to save their alpine paradise from the drea...
The Swiss banking system: How it makes bank for the Swiss
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The brilliance of the Swiss State is by far sweeter than the famous Swiss chocolate. The Swiss show us that it’s much more profitable to provide a safe port for pirates rather than engage in actual piracy. I’ll explain. UBS, the Swiss ub...
Switzerland delivers polite “Na” to IMF
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The IMF, 3 days ago, to Switzerland – Under the current circumstances, direct foreign exchange intervention should be aimed only at countering disruptive short-term pressures on the currency. This followed an acknowledgment that monetary polic...
Switzerland Opens the Bank Floodgates
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Europe may be continuing to wage its battle against Switzerland and Liechtenstein over banking secrecy, but after a Swiss government decision yesterday it looks like it may have been the US that has delivered the knock-out blow to the Alpine tax have...
So, a referendum can be a positive thing?
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Switzerland - the country that uses referendums most frequently in Europe, held another nationwide vote on Sunday. This time the question concerned the possible admission of Bulgarians and Romanians to country’s labor market. The opinion polls...
The Swiss Say Yes to Europe
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Brussels was breathing a sigh of relief today as the news of yesterday's Swiss referendum result reached people's desks. There had been some apprehension about the vote, which extends free-movement rules to new EU entrants Bulgaria and Romania, as op...
The Swiss Vote Yes
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Switerland has voted yes to continuing closer ties with the EU. The vote was on whether or not to extend the free movement of workers to Bulgarian and Romanian citizens - if it didn't do this, it would have led to looser ties with the EU at a critica...
The Swiss Say Yes to Europe
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Brussels was breathing a sigh of relief today as the news of yesterday's Swiss referendum result reached people's desks. There had been some apprehension about the vote, which extends free-movement rules to new EU entrants Bulgaria and Romania, as op...
Switzerland says Yes
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To extension of freedom of movement to the most recent EU accession states, Bulgaria and Romania. The poster in the photo from this TSR 1 story is interesting. Perhaps the Irish government Yes campaign for the Lisbon 2 referendum should think o...
Swiss back extending EU Accord
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Image via WikipediaNear full results show 59% of voters in Switzerland back the extension of labour accords to cover Bulgaria and Romania. This was on a 52% turnout. The opposition won a majority in four cantons out of 26. If the Swiss had voted no,...
What's Going on at Switzerland's Borders?
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Something very strange is going on here. Back on 12 December, Switzerland joined the passport-free Schengen Zone, which enables travel between it and all of its EU neighbors without a passport check. Yet from stories I've been hearing it seems that S...
What's Going on at Switzerlands Borders??
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Something very strange is going on here. Back on 12 December, Switzerland joined the passport-free Schengen Zone, which enables travel between it and all of its EU neighbors without a passport check. Yet from stories I've been hearing it seems that S...
Switzerland joins Schengen area
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According to a href="http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/international/Schengen-Schweiz-Reisen;art123,2671233"German news sources/a, EU ministers of the interior have decided that Switzerland will be the next country to join the Schengen area.br /br /...
