On the 1 March 2016, after 24 years of engagement with the EU since 1992, Switzerland voted 126 to 46 in their Parliament to withdraw the application to join the EU. Therefore the Swiss have seen sense and where they are now going it alone, making their own trade agreements with any nation in the world and even still with the EU. This makes a mockery of the those in the UK who wish to stay in the EU with regard to trade and where Britain too can negotiate trade deals outside the EU or within the European Union.
But the decision by Switzerland to not
join the EU is a clear indication that the EU is not working, for if it were,
they would have certainly wanted to stay in the EU as it is its largest trading
partner. Therefore why has Switzerland decided to leave the EU behind and go it
alone? For they certainly cannot fear any backlash from their main trading
partner.
For the answer to the reasons why, the
following Swiss article may enlighten the reasons why and educate those who
think that it is better to stay in the EU. The article is entitled, 'Swiss
Parliament decides to withdraw the application to join the EU' - http://www.lukas-reimann.ch/ger_details_1176/_Swiss_Parliament_decides_to_withdraw_the_application_to_join_the_EU.html
Today is the end of an era for the Europhiles: For
years Switzerland has had a request pending to join the Union. But today the
country quietly let that application lapse. Its citizens can all see for
themselves one of the differences between being in the EU or being outside it.
Switzerland applied to join the European Union on
16 Mai 1992. In Brussels, the Government of Switzerland signed an official
application to join the EU. The signatures have never been suspended and the
application was not formally withdrawn. Switzerland has been applying for EU
membership for 24 years.
The people voted in different referendums against
becoming closer to the greedy EU law. But the Government said, the people’s
vote did not oblige them to stop accession negotiations with the EU and in
future the situation could change. Europhiles have warned for years about the
dangers of Switzerland remaining outside the EU. But today Switzerland is
stronger and freer as a result of being outside, rather than inside the EU.
Independence and non-bureaucratic flexibility is an important part of the Swiss
success. Today Swiss polls find those keen on EU membership dwindling in the 5
per cents and today there is an important change in Swiss politics that has
been controversially disputed for many years:
Nobody seems to be interested in becoming a member
in the coming billions and trillions of years far into the future: The Swiss
parliament passed a proposition created by the EU-sceptical National Councillor
(MP) Lukas Reimann, to withdraw the request of 1992. It is hardly surprising
that the EU looks like an ever less attractive club to join. What, after all,
is the appeal of joining a club into which the entire world can apparently
move?
The vote of the Federal Assembly about this motion
ended with a 126 “Yes” and a 46 “No”. Now the senate (second chamber) will
discuss the proposition. Then the Swiss Government has to dissolve its
accession team and stop its application to join the EU.
Switzerland had been brutally treated as a nation aspiring to join the
EU, in all its negotiations. It had to accept idiotic bureaucracy in the
previous era of the Europhiles. Now Switzerland is a more independent nation
and in a better position to negotiate with the EU.
“This is a clear and historical message from the
Swiss parliament to British voters. We wish you the best of luck for Brexit.
These days, Switzerland is called Britzerland because Swiss people support the
Brexit”, said MP Lukas Reimann. He pointed out: “A big advantage of leaving the
EU, is free trade worldwide, not only between the member states, making it
easier and cheaper for British companies to export their goods to the rest of
the world.
The boost to income outweighs the billions of pounds in membership fees that Britain would save if it left the EU. The UK can have even more of its important negotiation power internationally, by leaving the trading bloc: It would be free to establish trade agreements with non-EU countries worldwide. Worldwide, Switzerland has many more free trade agreements than with the EU. A well-educated scientist moved from Britain to the EU-free zone of Switzerland to set up his own company. Within a few hours, he could completely establish his own first company without expensive lawyers and accountants - even they can’t know all the regulations from Brussels.
The vast majority of small and medium-sized firms do not trade with the EU but are restricted by a huge regulatory burden imposed from abroad. Leaving the EU makes the United Kingdom more open to the world without being bound or enslaved by EU laws on areas such as agriculture, justice and home affairs. The era of the EU application is over for Switzerland. And the era of the EU membership could be over soon for Britain.
This is Britain's chance of the century for a better future and for prosperity!
The boost to income outweighs the billions of pounds in membership fees that Britain would save if it left the EU. The UK can have even more of its important negotiation power internationally, by leaving the trading bloc: It would be free to establish trade agreements with non-EU countries worldwide. Worldwide, Switzerland has many more free trade agreements than with the EU. A well-educated scientist moved from Britain to the EU-free zone of Switzerland to set up his own company. Within a few hours, he could completely establish his own first company without expensive lawyers and accountants - even they can’t know all the regulations from Brussels.
The vast majority of small and medium-sized firms do not trade with the EU but are restricted by a huge regulatory burden imposed from abroad. Leaving the EU makes the United Kingdom more open to the world without being bound or enslaved by EU laws on areas such as agriculture, justice and home affairs. The era of the EU application is over for Switzerland. And the era of the EU membership could be over soon for Britain.
This is Britain's chance of the century for a better future and for prosperity!
Euro scepticism is increasing all over Europe. The
EU is hopelessly out of date and utterly incapable of coping with the
challenges of the 21st century. A courageous and visionary Brexit is the
beginning of freedom and prosperity in the whole of Europe! The almost
interminable money sent to the EU without real transparency and without real
accountability could be used to modernise Britain instead.
Switzerland and the UK have enjoyed close relations
for a long time. Ever since the 18th century, British politicians have made
much of Switzerland's neutrality on the European continent and repeatedly took
Switzerland's side when dealing with other European powers. The Cantonal Tree
erected just off Leicester Square, London, England celebrates the friendly
relations between Britain and Switzerland. Brexit will make this traditional
friendship better and more successful than ever. British and Swiss people are
clever: They know why Europe is the most fascinating continent because of
diversity, human rights, competition between the states and freedom. I wish you
a courageous and visionary referendum!
Author
Sandro Wächter, Brugg, Switzerland (Twitter: @sandro_waechter) in cooperation with Swiss MP Lukas Reimann, Wil, www.lukas-reimann.ch
Sandro Wächter, Brugg, Switzerland (Twitter: @sandro_waechter) in cooperation with Swiss MP Lukas Reimann, Wil, www.lukas-reimann.ch
Further informations
Swiss TV about the vote: http://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/nationalrat-will-eu-beitrittsgesuch-zurueckziehen
Swiss TV about the vote: http://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/nationalrat-will-eu-beitrittsgesuch-zurueckziehen
For a further insight to why the Swiss do not want to be a member of the European Union can be gleaned from 'The Spectator' article, 'The other side of the Alps: living and investing in Switzerland - The politically-savvy Swiss are so happy they stayed out of EU' by Elliot Wilson - http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/the-other-side-of-the-alps-living-and-investing-in-switzerland/
Switzerland has always been different: something of a sovereign
interloper, the guest in the corner of a party that no one remembers inviting.
Live here long enough and you begin to see the contradictions at work. People
with an almost pathological aversion to confrontation, yet who own more guns
per person than any country bar America, Serbia and Yemen. Rural craftsmen
eking out simple lives assembling Rolex watches. A love of both money and
thrift. One of the world’s most advanced economies, which closes down entirely
on Sundays.
Yet perhaps the most glaring paradox is the nation’s relationship with
the continent around it. The Swiss never quite ‘got’ the European project. They
weren’t an original signatory to the European Coal and Steel Community. Nor did
they join the European Economic Community, opting instead to cut a free-trade
agreement with the bloc in 1973, the year Britain joined. In 1992, a national
referendum to join Norway and Iceland on the subs’ bench as members of the
European Economic Area was defeated by the narrowest of margins.
Brussels prodded and prompted, but to no avail. Switzerland signed up to
the Schengen Agreement (a decision that, with the advent of the migrant
crisis, it now rather regrets), but never entertained the thought of swapping
the Swiss franc for the euro. In another plebiscite in February 2014, the
country voted to limit the number of inbound ‘migrants’, a label attached even
to white-collar workers from western EU states. A UK vote in favour of Brexit
would be a cue for Swiss legislators to thrash out a new deal on migrant quotas
with Brussels.
To understand Switzerland’s antipathy to outsiders, you just need to
glance at its history. Wave after wave of foreign antagonists, from the
Hapsburgs to Napoleon to the Nazis, have invaded, occupied or stared menacingly
over the mountain passes, instilling a ferocious sense of independence. It’s
easy to forget this is less a country and more a hodgepodge of 26 cantons,
ranging from the mighty Zurich, population just under 1.5 million, to tiny
Appenzell Innerrhoden, with just 15,854 — the female half of whom only won the
vote in 1991. ‘This is a country that had no capital or national parliament
until 1848; federalism is deeply rooted in the Swiss mentality,’ says Diccon
Bewes, British author of Swiss
Watching. ‘People think of themselves as Bernese or Genevois until they
go abroad, which is when they become “Swiss”.’
Over time, notes Lorne Baring — managing director of B Capital, an
asset-management company in Geneva and London — the Swiss ‘carved out their own
robust, successful and well-defined model of sovereignty. It’s a system based
on a politically savvy electorate that is content to make their own decisions.’
Little wonder Brussels and Bern, the seat of Swiss government, never saw
eye to eye. And the longer the European project staggers on, the greater the
vindication felt by the citizens of Lausanne and Lucerne. ‘The average Swiss
looks at Europe with horror,’ says Bewes. ‘They see no growth, huge debts, the
disaster that is Greece, a crumbling currency, the north paying for a fiscally
irresponsible south. And the general reaction is: we made the right decision
not to join.’
The Swiss are typically highly informed about political issues, with a
robust grasp of the long-term implications of fiscal decisions. ‘Political
culture holds that it’s better to devolve power to the local level,’ says
Daniel Kalt, the chief economist for Switzerland at UBS. ‘That federal power
plus direct democracy helps instill discipline in fiscal policy across the
country.’
This kantönligeist, a
word that translates directly as a ‘spirit of federalism’ and more broadly as
pride in running local affairs, also imbues the country with competitive bite.
‘Cantons compete with each other to attract the best companies and the best
taxpayers,’ says Kalt. By contrast, the Swiss view the EU as ‘an extension of
the French obsession with centralised control, which reduces competition.
That’s not what we want at all.’
But kantönligeist can
only get you so far. After a blessed decade during which Switzerland benefited
from a weak franc and an inflow of skilled workers (nurses from France, doctors
from Germany), darkling clouds have begun to gather. Much of this is due to the
perpetual weakness of the eurozone, the largest buyer of Swiss-made goods. When
the Swiss National Bank unpegged the franc from the euro early last year in the
run-up to the launch of European QE, the franc soared. Investors rushed to buy
a currency described by Charles Sizemore of Dallas-based Sizemore Capital
Management as ‘the ultimate safe haven, the ultimate hedge against volatility’.
The price of Swiss goods rose sharply, hitting exporters and an already
embattled tourism industry. According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch
Industry — a barometer of the wider economy — exports fell 3.3 per cent
year-on-year in January, the first monthly fall since 2009. Marco Estermann of
SIX, the country’s leading stock exchange, expects unemployment to rise over
the next few years as growth slows.
Switzerland has also faced attacks on its rigid secrecy laws, which
protect investors but act as camouflage for extracurricular activities from
money-laundering to tax evasion. Washington passed the Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act in 2010, expressly to prevent Americans from parking untaxed
earnings offshore; the pain was felt not by Swiss banks, which continue to
profit from global upheaval, but US expats. ‘The problem for a US national
living in Switzerland is finding a bank willing to take them on as a client,’
says Sizemore. ‘This is really too bad, because Swiss banks… are particularly
good at serving the needs of people who travel regularly or have business
dealings in multiple jurisdictions.’
2,000 - Number of global firms with HQs in
Switzerland
3.3% - Year-on-year fall in Swiss watch exports in
January 2016
$84,815 - Swiss GDP per capita, 2013
Yet Switzerland will survive, adapting in its adamantine way to the
lurching and listing of the outside world. Major industrial firms will move
more production to eastern Europe and Asia to trim costs, while keeping their
board and executives firmly planted on Swiss soil. ‘There are around 2,000
global corporates headquartered here, not just letterbox companies but real
structures,’ notes Estermann. They come for the low tax rates, and stay for the
high quality of life. Glencore, the FTSE-listed but Baar-based global commodity
giant, springs to mind. Nor is the nation’s reputation for money-management
likely to come under threat, despite negative yields on Swiss government bonds,
low returns on other domestic financial instruments and a slowdown of the local
property market. Buying a Swiss chalet was ‘a real money-maker over the past
decade,’ says Baring. ‘That moment has now passed.’
But good investment opportunities remain. Estermann points to the host
of leading Zurich-listed multi-nationals, from GPS chip-maker U-blox to
specialty chemicals firms Syngenta, EMS-Chemie and Clariant, plus industrial
giants ABB and Schindler. Sizemore notes that the iShares SMI, an
exchange-traded fund that gives investors access to a weighted basket of the
largest Swiss stocks, is on track to deliver dividend income of around 4 per
cent in 2016.
Then there are the likes of food giant Nestlé and drug makers Novartis
and Roche, corporate rocks on which the Swiss economy is built. ‘You really
can’t lose with Nestlé,’ says Sizemore. ‘It will still be around in a hundred
years’ time, making stuff you need to replace on a daily basis. Who knows if
Google will still be around then, but you can be pretty sure that your
grandchildren will still be eating chocolate and drinking bottled water.’ He
adds that for all their recent woes, Switzerland’s big banks, Credit Suisse and
UBS, are trading at valuations ‘that would have seemed crazy pre-financial
crisis. They are a decent buying option down the line.’
But perhaps the best reason to invest here right now is that Switzerland
is a great environment for bear investors. ‘If you see the world as a bad place
that will get worse, having a Swiss bank account is a great move,’ says Baring.
‘Around 35 per cent of clients are UK-based non-doms, so they need to put their
money to work in a safe place that’s outside but not far from Britain, and a
place that is in Europe but not part of the EU. Switzerland fits the bill
perfectly.’
Stop Press - Cameron Forced to put in the Queen's Speech or suffer defeat in parliament if he did not exclude the NHS from the TTIP trade negotiations
Cameron was forced to include a clause yesterday (19.05.16) so that the NHS was excluded in the TTIP negotiations. This should tell everyone that he is working for the corporations, as the TTIP is a corporate treaty in reality and why should he have had to be forced to do this if the TTIP is so good for the people?But he is having to do this under duress. Unfortunately for the NHS this will not stop the EU from privatising the NHS over a relatively short period of time when we have signed to stay in the EU and where because the TTIP makes it clear that 'MONOPOLIES' cannot exist, the EU will demand that the NHS is privatised.
And Britain will not be able to do a single thing against this, as we would then be trapped inside an all-powerful EU and under their total control. Don't believe me, return here in a mere 10 years time to see that all the above has unfortunately come true if we stay in the EU. For only by voting OUT can the NHS be saved and that is ultimately the truth.
I just wish people would wake up to the reality of the EU and where we shall definitely not be able to save the NHS and anything else for that matter that we cherish so much, once we sign to stay in the EU. For this time it will be forever.
Dr David
Hill
CEO,
World Innovation Foundation
19 March
2016 (updated 20 May 2016)
Reference:
1. 'Brexit: efficient Swiss find EU
affairs run nothing like clockwork' - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/07/brexit-efficient-swiss-find-eu-affairs-run-nothing-like-clockwor/
2. 'EU referendum: Can Switzerland
show UK route to Brexit?' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35615604
(note that this is the only article that was reported by the BBC on the Swiss
not wanting to join the EU and a clear indication of their bias towards the
government's 'in-Campaign'. For if the Swiss had decided to stay in the EU, it
would have been broadcast from the rooftops from morning til night and debated
for a few days after). I wonder why the BBC was so economic with this EI news?
Anyone any answers? )
3. 'Switzerland–European Union relations' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland%E2%80%93European_Union_relations
5. 'Switzerland votes 'No' to EU membership, supports Brexit - See more at: http://www.sigmalive.com/en/news/international/142385/switzerland-votes-no-to-eu-membership-supports-brexit#sthash.QrGWumHH.dpuf' - http://www.sigmalive.com/en/news/international/142385/switzerland-votes-no-to-eu-membership-supports-brexit
HM Government & the EU Most Probably Covering-Up and Muzzling the Mainstream UK and EU News Media for their 'own' Political Reasons
The
few articles above are the 'only' ones from mainstream media that appeared in UK and EU media and because
Switzerland's 'out' vote is important to inform people, this can be seen as a
'cover-up' by mainstream media outlets to not inform the British people. Therefore
the people of United Kingdom are not being told even highly material factors
and where they should clearly understand this before they take the word of the
government who are working on a strategy of fear that is not really there and a
media cover up when it suits them. Indeed it clearly shows also that the BBC is
being controlled by 10 Downing Street, for did you know that Switzerland had
decided not to join the EU? Ask yourself that question and where the only
answer is that you have to come to the conclusion that there is definitely
a cover-up strategy against the people being orchestrated by the UK government.
