Strategia bilateralizmu w polityce Konfederacji Szwajcarskiej wobec UE

Abstract

Switzerland is not a member of the European Union nor does it belong to the European Economic Area (EEA). Relations between Switzerland and the EU are developing through bilateral agreements. In 1992 Swiss voters rejected membership of the European Economic Area. The pragmatic response of the Swiss government since then has been to follow the way of bilateralism. The Federal Council decided to launch negotiations on a sector basis with the EU to ensure market access for Swiss companies in key economic sectors. At the end of 1993 the EU declared itself ready for negotiations in seven sectors on the condition that all the sectors will be negotiated in parallel and that be signed and take effect together. On 21 June 1999 Bern and Brussels signed the seven bilateral agreements. Known as Bilateral Agreements I, they were approved by 67.2 per cent of the electorate on 21 May 2000 and came into force on 1 June 2002. The agreements were linked in legal terms by a “guillotine clause”, stipulating that they can only take effect together: should one of them fail to be prolonged or be terminated, the remaining six would also become invalid. Together with the Free Trade Agreement they enable Swiss private sector to gain extensive access to the Single European Market of almost 500 million potential consumers. This led to privileged partnership through which Switzerland obtained several of advantages of the European integration process, paying a very low cost in regard to economic interests and its domestic political system