Switzerland WITHDRAWS its application to enter EU…just one week before Brexit vote
Swiss counsellor is eager to 'close topic fast and painlessly' as politicians vote to invalidate 1992 application in parliament
POLITICIANS in Switzerland have voted to withdraw the country’s long-standing EU application because only “a few lunatics” would want to join the European Union now.
Thomas Minder, counsellor for Schaffhausen state and an active promoter of the concept of “Swissness” told a Swiss newspaper, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, he was eager to “close the topic fast and painlessly” as only “a few lunatics” may want to join.
A total of 27 members of parliament’s upper house voted to invalidate the 1992 application – a week before Britain decides on its own EU membership.
The original motion, introduced by the conservative Swiss People’s Party MP, Lukas Reimann, received overwhelming support from law-makers back in March, with 126 National Council deputies voting in favour.
But Switzerland will now give formal notice to the EU to consider its application withdrawn.
Hannes Germann, also representing Schaffhausen, compared the withdrawal to the symbolic importance to Iceland’s decision to drop its membership bid in 2015.
“Iceland had the courage and withdrew the application for membership, so no volcano erupted,” he said.
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Switzerland’s long-standing application to join has had little impact on domestic politics for more than 20 years, after it suspended accession negotiations in 1992, following a referendum to join the European Economic Area.
However, the Swiss public narrowly rejected EEA membership.
Some have even argued that the vote was unnecessary because the EU no longer regards the country as an official candidate to join.
Filippo Lombardi, from the Christian Democratic People’s Party, said it was "not very clever to discuss it once again," calling the whole thing "a bit ridiculous".
Switzerland, never a member of EU, shares free trade with the union and free movement of people as part of the Schengen zone.
The British public will have their say on the country’s EU membership through a much anticipated referendum on Thursday.