EU wants to end Switzerland's solo course

EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy wants Switzerland to automatically adopt changes in EU law in future. The daily Die Presse sees Switzerland's laborious solo approach, which has entailed 120 bilateral agreements with the EU so far, as a failure: "In Austria it is often said that Switzerland has been cleverer in its dealings with the EU. But that overlooks that fact that the Swiss are increasingly being driven and forced to adopt inconvenient regulations like those on the financial market or corporate taxation - all in exchange for their participation in the single market. The Swiss/EU special model shows that in the end there can hardly be a middle course for other countries like Turkey. Because on the one hand it's unreasonable to expect partner countries not to be involved in EU decisions, but on the other we can't expect the EU states to pay high membership contributions, make compromises on joint decisions and then make allowances for partners who have invested far less both financially and politically."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Switzerland, » Europe, » Turkey
All available articles from » Wolfgang Böhm

» To the complete press review of Thursday, July 29, 2010