Swiss-EU Relations
October 30, 2007
"Switzerland wants to deepen and expand relations with the EU," Micheline Calmy-Rey, the country's acting president, said Monday, Oct. 30, at a meeting of heads-of-state of Europe's four German-speaking countries.
Calmy-Rey, German President Horst Köhler and Austrian President Heinz Fischer were invited by Lichtenstein's Prince Alois to his castle in Vaduz on Monday for the fourth annual meeting of its kind.
The Swiss president's statement came just over a week after the country's right-wing People's Party won parliamentary elections on an anti-EU, anti-immigration platform.
"Those who are against the EU, who want lower taxes, who want security and fewer criminal foreigners voted for the SVP," People's Party head Ueli Maurer said after the election, referring to his party by the acronym of its German name.
The UN special rapporteur on racism denounced the party for inciting racial hatred in its xenophobic campaigning and for pledging to deport non-national criminals.
Calmy-Rey's Socialist Party, now the second largest in parliament, has 43 of 200 seats, while the People's Party has 62.
Elections show effects of globalization
The president said the elections on Oct. 21 reflected the tensions inherent to globalization.
"The economy is flourishing and unemployment is under three percent," she said. "But there is still economic uncertainty and people are worried about their material security."
Calmy-Rey, who was Switzerland's foreign minister but has taken on the duties of president for a year, said that her country has 120 bilateral treaties with the EU that Switzerland wants to fully implement.
"We just have one problem at the moment, and that's the tax conflict," she added.
The European Commission has maintained that some of the tax laws in Switzerland's cantons are inconsistent with the EU-Swiss free trade agreement.
Switzerland on track to join visa-free area
Lichtenstein's Prince Alois said he was confident that both his princedom and Switzerland would be able to join the Schengen Agreement by 2008, as planned.
The treaty allows for visa-free travel between the participating countries, most of which are members of the European Union, and is seen as a major step toward integration with Europe.
The EU's reform treaty topped the agenda at Monday's meeting in Vaduz. Both Köhler and his Austrian counterpart Fischer expressed their confidence that the document would be ratified next year. The reform treaty is meant to replace the failed constitution draft, which was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
"I'm very happy about the European Union's reform treaty," said Köhler. "I think it can be implemented as early as 2009."