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Thread: Switzerland: "Creeping EU Accession"

  1. #1

    Switzerland: "Creeping EU Accession"

    Swiss voters have resoundingly rejected a referendum calling for the Swiss Constitution to take precedence over international treaties and law.

    Two-thirds (66.2%) of voters in the November 25 referendum opposed the "self-determination" initiative, put forward by the eurosceptic Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP), the largest party in the Swiss parliament.
    SVP leaders had argued that the new law was necessary to safeguard national sovereignty from further encroachment by supranational organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations.
    The Swiss government countered that the proposal would undermine Switzerland's economic stability as it would require Bern to amend existing bilateral agreements with the EU, the country's largest trade partner, to bring them into compliance with the Swiss Constitution.
    The proposal's defeat comes ahead of pending decisions by the Swiss government over whether to sign a wide-ranging EU "framework agreement," and a controversial UN "migration pact."
    Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but has gained access to the European single market by signing a series of bilateral agreements in which Switzerland has given away large slices of its national sovereignty, including control over boundaries and immigration. In all, Switzerland has more than 120 bilateral agreements that govern its relations with the European Union.
    The EU is now pressing Switzerland to sign a comprehensive "framework agreement" that would require Bern to cede even more sovereignty to Brussels. The EU, for instance, wants Switzerland to subject itself to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). If Switzerland complies with the demand, the ECJ would outrank the Swiss Supreme Court as the final arbiter of legal disputes in the country.
    The EU has now increased the pressure by resorting to blackmail: Brussels is making its continued recognition of Switzerland's SIX Swiss Exchange, the fourth-largest stock market in Europe, contingent on Swiss acceptance of the framework agreement. Switzerland's current stock exchange agreement with the EU expires at the end of December; failure to renew it would deprive the Swiss exchange of EU-based business that generates more than half its volume.
    Swiss leaders have said they doubt that any proposed treaty could win the backing of parliament or voters in a referendum under the Swiss system of direct democracy.
    Bloomberg News encapsulated the dilemma facing Switzerland:
    "The Swiss government now faces the prospect of choosing between two evils: agree to the EU framework deal only to have it torpedoed by voters in a referendum, or renege on the treaty and risk reprisals from Brussels that hurt the economy."
    A key point of contention in Swiss-EU relations revolves around a long-running dispute over the EU's "Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons." The agreement, which Switzerland signed in June 1999, allows EU citizens to live and work in Switzerland, and vice versa. The original agreement applied to 15 EU member states, but with the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, 2007 and 2013, the agreement now applies to 28 EU member states, including the poorer countries in Eastern Europe.
    In an effort to curb the increasing amount of crime associated with immigration, Swiss voters in November 2010 approved a referendum to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes in Switzerland.
    The EU warned that deporting EU citizens for any reason would be a violation of Switzerland's treaty obligations regarding the free movement of persons. The Swiss parliament, seeking to avoid economic reprisals, eventually passed a watered-down law aimed at reconciling the will of Swiss voters with Switzerland's obligations under EU law.
    SVP MP Adrian Amstutz argued that in its zeal to please the EU, the Swiss parliament's new deportation law would prove to be worthless in practice:
    "According to the parliament's implementation of the law for the deportation initiative, courts would have the possibility to put aside a deportation — even in the case of the most serious offenses — via the hardship clause. Current legal practices show that judges would frequently make use of this option. As a consequence, hardly any foreign criminals would be deported."
    In February 2014, Swiss voters approved a referendum to reintroduce quotas for immigration from EU countries. Proponents of the quotas argued that foreign workers were driving down wages and increasing demand for housing, health, education and transport.
    The EU warned that any restrictions on access to the Swiss labor market would violate the agreement on the freedom of movement of persons, and threatened"serious consequences." The Swiss parliament again yielded to EU pressure, this time by passing watered-down restrictions on immigration.
    Another flashpoint in bilateral relations involves the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In November 2014, the ECHR prohibited Switzerland from sending Afghan asylum seekers back to Italy. Although Italian authorities had agreed to take them back, the ECHR ruled that doing so would violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Prohibition of Inhuman and Degrading Treatments) because of overcrowding and poor conditions at Italian asylum facilities.
    SVP leader Christoph Blocher criticized the ECHR for ignoring the principle of subsidiarity, which holds that decisions should be taken, if possible, at the local level:
    "Don't we trust federal judges to decide on human rights issues? We had those principles written into our constitution well before the ECHR. The problem with the convention is that it decides things from far away. The consequences, what happens next, don't concern the judges."
    Martin Schubarth, a former Swiss federal judge, echoed those concerns:
    "It is unacceptable that a small panel of [ECHR] judges, who generally lack the expert knowledge about the [Swiss] legislative authority, handle matters in an undemocratic way instead of the [Swiss] authority itself."
    In February 2018, Swiss public television SRF reported that the European Commission had presented the Swiss government with a 19-page "sin list" of Swiss violations of EU law.
    Switzerland's ongoing disputes with the EU, and the concomitant erosion of Swiss sovereignty, prompted the SVP to sponsor the referendum to ensure the precedence of Swiss law.
    The sponsor of the initiative, SVP MP Hans-Ueli Vogt, expressed surprise at the scale of the defeat — a rare setback for the SVP, one of the most successful anti-EU parties in Europe — but said he would continue to fight against "creeping EU accession."
    The measure was opposed by a coalition of Swiss business groups, which convincingly argued that the referendum was a question of economics and access to international markets for the export-dependent country. "Ultimately, it is about maintaining prosperity in Switzerland and keeping the companies and jobs here," said Monika Rühl, director of the business group Economiesuisse.
    Some Swiss newspapers described result of the referendum as a "fiasco" and a "serious setback" for the SVP. Others were more circumspect. "The object of the initiative was very legitimate: it was about national sovereignty and its relationship with international law in a globalized world," noted La Liberté, a paper based in Fribourg. The Geneva-based L'Express added:
    "The SVP suffered a defeat because it failed to mobilize and convince beyond its base. The voters wanted a pragmatic assessment between international law and national law. Depending on the situation, one or the other should apply. The definitive prevalence of one over the other, on the other hand, is not shared by the majority."
    La Tribune de Genève wrote: "What the Swiss have supported this Sunday is a pragmatic, negotiated, piecemeal approach to our national interests. Voting is in no way a declaration of love to a European Union in crisis."
    The Swiss People's Party said that despite the loss, the referendum "brought a welcome and suppressed debate about the relationship between Swiss law and international law and the importance of direct democracy." The SVP added that its fight for Swiss self-determination would continue:
    "First of all, the SVP demands that Switzerland not join the UN migration pact. We are counting on the pledges of the representatives of the other parties, that at the very least it is presented to the parliament with the aim of holding a referendum on the matter, so that Swiss voters can have their say about such a far-reaching pact.
    "Secondly, the SVP rejects a one-sided submission to EU institutions, aimed at establishing an institutional connection of Switzerland to the EU apparatus, with a dynamic EU legal takeover and, ultimately, the subordination of Switzerland to the EU Court of Justice. A dynamic adoption of EU law would be another massive erosion of our direct democracy."



    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...g-eu-accession



    Modern man rushes to sell his birthright for a mess of pottage every time, @CaptUSA suggested in another thread that we need to tie our agenda to helping people get rich, it may be our only hope if we can figure out how to do it.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  3. #2
    Switzerland has abandoned hopes of reaching an agreement with the European Union on a new treaty this month, frustrated by its inability to forge domestic consensus on how to its approach its biggest foreign policy issue.Officials involved in the matter say informal talks continue and a window for an agreement remains open until mid-2020 because neither side wants to declare the treaty dead.
    But Swiss domestic squabbling have undermined efforts to strike a deal. The Swiss are divided over EU demands that they dilute rules protecting their wages, the highest in Europe, from cross-border competition by EU workers on temporary assignments.
    A Swiss referendum that could come in May on ending the free movement of people from the EU -- Switzerland's "Brexit moment" -- discourages bold action.
    And then there is Brexit itself. No Swiss-EU accord will emerge until Britain's chaotic departure from the bloc is settled, because Brussels has been loath to give the Swiss concessions that Britain might seize on, the officials say.
    The logjam is intact before Swiss parliamentary elections on Oct. 20 and a new European Commission headed by Germany's Ursula von der Leyen takes office at the start of next month.
    Progress on the treaty stalled last year after more than four years of negotiations. The terms of the proposed agreement called for Switzerland to routinely adopt the rules of the EU single market -- vital for the export-reliant Swiss economy -- and provide a more effective way to resolve disputes.
    It ran aground amid opposition that spanned the normally pro-Europe center-left to the anti-EU far right. Critics say the treaty infringes Swiss sovereignty to the extent that it would never get through parliament or pass a referendum under Switzerland's direct democracy.

    More at: https://news.yahoo.com/chances-swiss...142610951.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  4. #3
    The E.U. is seeking nothing short of political union. Imagine the "President of the E.U." this is where it is heading. Its only a matter of time. Brexit is running up against this right now. Separating itself from this E.U. crap. The E.U. as an "entity" needs to try to stay together in order to compete in the world. That is the global economy and such. They cannot compete in any meaningful way without being joined at the hip. The E.U. WILL become a political union or else they fail and break apart. It really is that simple.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauls' Revere View Post
    The E.U. is seeking nothing short of political union. Imagine the "President of the E.U." this is where it is heading. Its only a matter of time. Brexit is running up against this right now. Separating itself from this E.U. crap. The E.U. as an "entity" needs to try to stay together in order to compete in the world. That is the global economy and such. They cannot compete in any meaningful way without being joined at the hip. The E.U. WILL become a political union or else they fail and break apart. It really is that simple.
    I think they will fail and break apart.
    But I expect Europe to be united in the aftermath of the fighting that will set off, then I expect it to break apart into a handful of regions but possibly include areas outside the current EU like Russia.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    I think they will fail and break apart.
    But I expect Europe to be united in the aftermath of the fighting that will set off, then I expect it to break apart into a handful of regions but possibly include areas outside the current EU like Russia.
    I respectfully disagree, WW2 is still very recent in their history and the world's for that matter. Europe felt it much worse than the U.S. did. Heck, Spain became a democracy in 1972? Think about that.

    They won't break apart, they know the damage that will cause and the vacuum it will leave for Russia, and nobody in Western Europe is going to stand for that after the collapse of the Berlin Wall etc...

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauls' Revere View Post
    I respectfully disagree, WW2 is still very recent in their history and the world's for that matter. Europe felt it much worse than the U.S. did. Heck, Spain became a democracy in 1972? Think about that.

    They won't break apart, they know the damage that will cause and the vacuum it will leave for Russia, and nobody in Western Europe is going to stand for that after the collapse of the Berlin Wall etc...
    We will see but I think there are too many people who are sick of the EU and too many different groups who want to control it for it to survive in its present form.
    And the "Russian threat" doesn't seem to really scare most of them or they wouldn't be allowing themselves to become so dependent on Russian gas or allowing their militaries to atrophy the way they have, some of those in the east seem more concerned but that is just another disagreement that will tear them apart.

    Europe won't hold together until it is bonded by a truly harsh conquest like we haven't seen in centuries or a true outside threat that they all agree about.
    And the US military presence only serves to weaken the possible value of the "Russian threat" to get them to hold together because they think they can rely on us whether the EU exists or not.

    I expect islam to be the unifying threat after the coming collapse and Turkey is making itself look like the face of that threat more and more lately.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We will see but I think there are too many people who are sick of the EU and too many different groups who want to control it for it to survive in its present form.
    And the "Russian threat" doesn't seem to really scare most of them or they wouldn't be allowing themselves to become so dependent on Russian gas or allowing their militaries to atrophy the way they have, some of those in the east seem more concerned but that is just another disagreement that will tear them apart.

    Europe won't hold together until it is bonded by a truly harsh conquest like we haven't seen in centuries or a true outside threat that they all agree about.
    And the US military presence only serves to weaken the possible value of the "Russian threat" to get them to hold together because they think they can rely on us whether the EU exists or not.

    I expect islam to be the unifying threat after the coming collapse and Turkey is making itself look like the face of that threat more and more lately.

    It will, France is in the way. They have played their "diplomat of Europe" card for a long time and its wearing thin. Germany is taking hold and as usual is the economic engine of Europe. That decides who is in charge.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauls' Revere View Post
    It will, France is in the way. They have played their "diplomat of Europe" card for a long time and its wearing thin. Germany is taking hold and as usual is the economic engine of Europe. That decides who is in charge.
    Germany is going to have serious problems and probably be taken over by Euroskeptic forces.
    All of Europe is going to have serious economic problems and that will lead to fights about money.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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