Dublin & Shengen €U Treaties - How the Swiss voted & not voted.

international | eu | news report

Sunday June 05, 2005 13:20

by iosaf C&p-ing swissinfo and agencies

Dublin & Shengen & gay marriage & zurich football club votes today.

Switzerland is not a member of the €U, but has moved steadily closer to the €U in the last years, signing up to very important agreements on many issues including banking, secrecy, exchange of information, migration and enviromentalism.

Thirteen EU member states as well as Norway and Iceland are signatories to the Schengen and Dublin treaties. Ireland and the UK are due to join later this year, while the new EU countries will participate at a later stage.

Under the accords, Switzerland would agree to abandon systematic identity checks on its borders but link up to a Europe-wide electronic database on wanted and missing persons, illegal immigrants and property.

Dublin & Shengen €U - tying hands & the knot.

The Swiss would also sign up to an agreement which allows member countries to reject asylum seekers if they have filed a request in another signatory country prior to coming to Switzerland.

Switzerland would only be the third non-EU member state to join the Schengen and Dublin agreements on closer police and asylum cooperation.

The treaties are part of a second set of bilateral accords with the EU and must be considered by ye in tandem with the enlargement and the draft constitution.

Both accords – part of a second series of bilateral treaties with the EU – were approved by the Swiss government and parliament last year.

But the rightwing Swiss People’s Party alongside the isolationist group, "Campaign for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland", collected enough signatures to force a nationwide vote on the issue.

So this morning the Swiss voted, and the polls have just closed. The Swiss are a people who don't believe in leaving polls open all day, if you're a voter, you wake up early and go ink your thumb. If you're so lazy that you don't leave your chalet before 12h00 then you're not participating in your society so won't take your obligations of franchise seriously enough. As a result the Swiss don't really count their "abstention" or non-votes.

They also like killing as many birds with one stone as is possible. So they also voted on a "same sex union" law, which thought falling short of the recent spanish "marriage act" would allow same sex couples the same legal rights and entitlements and recogntion under civil law as is afforded by both French and German states without allowing them adoption rights or full "married status".

And the people of Zurich got to vote In local ballots in the city of Zurich voters on a SFr121.3 million ($98.6 million) credit for a football stadium – one of four Swiss venues of the 2008 European football championship, jointly hosted by Switzerland and neighbouring Austria.

The same sex referendum is expected to be passed without much difficulty as is the Zurich football deal..

The ratification of the Shengen and Dublin treaties, is too close to call.

wave of foreign criminals entering the county. They also said it would compromise Switzerland’s sovereignty and that the accord was a step towards full EU membership.

Some leftwing groups are also opposed to the Schengen and Dublin accords because of reservations about data protection rules.

But supporters say participation in the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the European fingerprint database for asylum seekers, Eurodac, would make Switzerland a more secure place and help reduce the number of asylum applications. Another argument is that the Schengen three-month visa would give a boost to the tourism industry.

Three of the four main political parties, the business community as well as trade unions have all come out in favour of Schengen/Dublin.

It is one of two key foreign policy ballots in Switzerland this year. In September the electorate is due to decide on granting access to the Swiss labour market to citizens of the ten new EU member states.

The campaign ahead of the nationwide vote was marked by a controversy over the role of the justice minister, Christoph Blocher. He publicly broke ranks with the other members of the multi-party cabinet by declaring his opposition to the accords.

Under the principles of collegiality, the government is expected to present a united front once it has agreed a common position.

Latest opinion polls show a 55% majority in favour of the Schengen/Dublin treaties, but support has dropped considerably over the past few months. In april polled opinion stood at 62% for yes and 17% "don't know don't care" where as the "dunno if i can get up so early on a sunday morning" was yesterday estimated at only 10%, so as people have decided they have steadily decided "No".

Or as this is switzerland, they have decided-
No! Non! Nein! / Oui! Si! Ja!.

59% of the electorate declared an interest to vote.
The poll was carried out between May 17 and 21 among 1,226 people throughout Switzerland.

More or Less here are the arguments:-

The case for

The Schengen agreements permit free movement between EU member states by doing away with systematic checks on individuals at internal frontiers. The Treaty of Dublin, for its part, regulates asylum issues between the EU states and streamlines the asylum process.

The government believes it is vital that Switzerland participates in Schengen. It points out that bilateral police and customs cooperation agreements between Switzerland and its neighbours have not proved sufficient to combat modern forms of crime and that broader cooperation is called for.

In particular it argues that Switzerland needs access to EU data stored on the state-of-the-art SIS computer network system. It warns that "in the event of a 'go-it-alone’ policy, Switzerland risks becoming a weak point in European security".

Schengen membership would make the country’s borders more rather than less secure, the government argues. Swiss border guards would continue to carry out checks on individuals and goods. But instead of all checks taking place at the border, under Schengen checks could be carried out at different locations in the border zone.

Another feature of Schengen is the visa policy allowing tourists to travel throughout Europe without restriction. The authorities say Switzerland’s inclusion in this scheme could be a real boon to tourism.

The government also sees advantages for Switzerland through signing the Dublin Treaty.

The Dublin measures against multiple asylum applications in different countries should make Switzerland less attractive to asylum seekers in relation to other countries, it believes. The right to one asylum hearing in the whole of Europe should also prevent what is referred to as "asylum tourism".

The case against

Present at the launch of the government’s campaign was Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, whose rightwing Swiss People’s Party is bitterly opposed to Schengen/Dublin.

Hinting at his own lack of conviction, Blocher said the security and asylum situation in Switzerland would improve "if the system works".

But Blocher’s party colleagues are convinced that a yes vote on June 5 would compromise Switzerland’s security and lead to soaring crime.

Party president Ueli Maurer went as far as to say that Schengen was "the biggest threat" to the country’s sovereignty and security since the founding of the modern state in 1848.

A new advertising poster features cartoon images of men and women holding their hands up in horror at the thought of Schengen membership. "Security lost, jobs lost? No to Schengen!" reads the slogan.

"If Switzerland says yes to Schengen/Dublin that will mean the most attractive country in Europe doing away with border controls and opening its doors wide," the party says on its website.

"The result would be a grave loss of security entailing more criminal tourism, more illegal immigrants, more illegal workers and more unemployment."

€*.:.+$%@

I will of course give you details of the results in the comments as soon as they come in.

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Comments (13 of 13)

the helvetian gnomes have had their canton say.

by gosh!

Sun Jun 05, 2005 21:32

a higher than average sunday morning turnout of 58.03% of the helvetians privelaged with a vote have returned a verdict of :-
54% to ratify the Dublin & Schenanigins international flow of people, some of whom your local village don't like and the Xchange of information which hardly any of you know the scope of between a tiny number of people who don't really share your tastes in anything.
58% of the 58.03% have also approved the swiss same sex civil union contract law.

the results are not counted for the Zurich football stadium and fans of footie stadia and large capacity rock group managerial teams will have to wait another day to review their strategies and prepare statements for shareholders and season ticket-holders and naturally those holed up protester types in the thicket -
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/pore/va/20050605/index.html
http://www.europa.admin.ch/nbv/referendum/e/index.htm

money.
that's what lazarus saw at the thrilling movies.
food, the rich man's table, wine, sweetmeats,
and women of normal beauty but extraordinary silk, and women of extraordinary beauty and hair drenched in perfume younger than the former.
was that lazarus of the parable and dead, different to the one at the door?

how 58% of the swiss population registered and franchised voted on the Dublin & Shengen treaty. the west (green) cantons :yes and (red) east no.

Swiss press reaction round up.

by "this bit is a tad leaky" - -"well caulk it lad, and less of your taurus excreta!"

Mon Jun 06, 2005 13:27

more or less, ribbidly happy. But, yes, there is a but...
"it will be more difficult" ("shwierig" rather than "dificil") to extend such €uro-enthusiasm to the newer members.

You see, & here is the little rub-
The Swiss have voted to open thier borders to what was once called "western europe". They haven't voted to allow in Polish, Hungarian, Latvian, Cypriot, Rumanian, Estonians. Oh no. You'd be teased by a swiss invited to chocalate and thrilling movies in Berne if you were a Maltese. If you're a Lithuanian, you're only getting to see the new (approved resoundingly) Zurich football stadium on a visa. So at end, it was the Swiss who have given us and will give us "the TWO TIER Europe". They promised they wouldn't make a two tier europe didn't they?
maybe we should protest against the two tier europe for a while, and see can we get a better draft constitution out of them..

So as the Helvetians look forward to hosting me and my mates this winter with less red tape, and celebrate their 2nd social forum today, they begin themselves point out that Balkans don't really get a look-in.
Social Forum-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=107&sid=5837341&cKey=1117724834000
The next referendum will be held some sunday morning in September.
Press reaction-

Ireland joining Shengen?

by redjade

Mon Jun 06, 2005 14:22

'Ireland and the UK are due to join later this year'

Iosaf,

I do appreciate your euro-political info-analysis blogging, thx

I didn't know Ireland was finally joining Shengen - not that I doubt you, because you're quite a wiz and knowing this stuff - but can you point to some links that confirm this?

I had thought Ireland was joined to the hip with the UKians on NOT being a Shengen country?

hmmm & oooopsie & vague on that redjade

by io

Mon Jun 06, 2005 14:56

that contentious line came from the Swiss themselves, swissinfo have in their lead upto the vote, consistently said though "ireland and the UK" aren't in schengen they latterly signed up to key aspects ( I reckon behind the aquis of the amsterdam treaty )and in are scheduled to sign up to more "bits and bobs" the Dublin convention, Amsterdam and certainly the draft VGdE constitution would make "not actually joining the schengen" an imperative to having all the schengen accords on the law books.

I'll do my best to find out what when and where, but its into the .pdf files, and not so easy to cut and paste.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=5753284

"special arrangements"

Mon Jun 06, 2005 15:01

still can't find out what they are though-
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/willkommen/einreisebestimmungen/schengen_html

Good to see your photos back by the way Redjade

Mon Jun 06, 2005 16:44

Ok,
Ireland and UK are signed up to the visa information exchange programme to assist in the identification and return of illegal immigrants and to facilitate the application of the «Dublin II Regulation» (EC) No 343/2003 [6]. The improvement of the assessment of visa applications including the consultation between central authorities, and the verification and identification of applicants at consulates and at checkpoints contributes to the internal security of the Member States and towards combating terrorism7 [7], which constitutes a horizontal objective and basic criterion for the common visa policy, as well as the fight against illegal immigration [8]. Simultaneously, the VIS will benefit bona fide travellers by improving the procedures for issuing visas and for checks. which is all components of the Shengen information system, and part 2 of that system is currently being expanded, and garda, psni, met, ncd, and plod computers will be linked to that and of course mcdowell.
(that was 2003)
i'm sure there's more.
this was a whiff of a mention to "special arrangements" for the danish in 2004-
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2004/l_213/l_21320040615en00050007.pdf
apparantly
article 1 point b council decision 1999/437/EC(w)
made it ok, to do something or other.

Isn't this why Europe has a problem?

Everything is cross-referenced, judicial legal jargon.

At what % does a "democratic decision" on super-national treaties become a national one?

by spoiling us.

Mon Jun 06, 2005 22:42

Benita Ferero Waldner is the sweetie of €U foreign affairs, and has the nickname Ferrero-Küsschen, you know the ones, in hotter countries they're taken off the market for summer time, and she has congratulated "the swiss" (like all of them) for voting (only a sunday morning) "The Swiss made up their own minds and refused to be influence by the language of demagogues,".

If our democracies are to be cherished in the XXI century beyond the mere confines of the conservative right of Austria and its bourgois spoilt crew, then it may be time to consider multi-day polling.

I doubt anyone could deny, that a poll which is open for more than 8 hours, stands a better chance of registering the true suffrage, and would take this opportunity to fly the kite that polls of national, state or european nature be open to the electorate for at least 48 hours. The only drawback for this, would be the credibility of the politicians who would be incapable of ("á la david trimble") waving the inked thumb at us one hour, and a few later crying like a bzzzzzzzzzt baby without results they'd have to be silent...

the biog of Benita (most probably "christian" named after Beinto Mussolini)-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benita_Ferrero-Waldner
& her home site, ribbid ribbid, born salzburg, lovely chocolates mozart ones, speaks latin spanish, yumyum, bavarian, why sister, austrian right winger indeed, eurggggggh, wow live down the road from Heider, "hmmm the put rightwing in the water there??¿?" pissing off the swiss partners of your party -intrigued
http://www.oevp.at/ferrero-waldner/index.aspx?bhcp=1

The sour aftertaste for her "red colored in the illustration above me looking for the irish/uk bits of shite that are used for schenanigans NEIN! little over 40% of the electorate" is this-

She said she hoped that the electorate would also endorse a proposal to grant access to the Swiss labour market to the ten new EU member states. A vote on the issue is scheduled for September 25.

"A Europe-wide passport-free zone was not possible unless Switzerland lifts its labour restrictions for all EU citizens", she added.

That means, no ferero rochers unless all of €urope can go see the nestlé museum.
So afterall the swiss aren't going to be the ones to provoke a "2 TIER EUROPE".

But the Swiss would fight back, legally, ICC international legal, all the jargon, they want a "2 TIER EUROPE" Ferrero- Waldner said the EU would only ratify the Schengen/Dublin treaties with Switzerland after a vote on extending a 2002 labour accord.

She said failure to endorse the agreement could jeopardise other bilateral accords between Switzerland and Brussels, signed in 2000 and 2004.

The Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, said security and asylum cooperation could not be linked with a vote on access to the Swiss labour market.

She said the electorate would decide independently and in a democratic procedure at the ballot box.

Justice Minister Christoph Blocher said he would examine whether legally the two issues are related.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=5849357&cKey=1118084883000

Meanwhile, I really can't find the exact page where it says the Republic of Eire and the UK of scoaturlund, cymru, engurland and wee ulster are joining in the shenanigans treaty later this year, & now believe it was mere sloppy journalism and black manipulative propaganda on behalf of the helvetians. We're above that sort of thing.

we go way back.

Fans of Swiss football are delighted to see the Zurich stadium gets is go ahead-.

by yes. we go way back.

Thu Jul 14, 2005 18:07

whilst fans of Shengen are interested to see the British Home Secretary Charles Clarke is now the president of the EU ministers of the interior, and has signalled his displeasure at the unilateral decision by French minister Sarkosy to switch on the "safeguard clause" in the accords and thus begin internal and frontier controls in France. This will run...
http://www.lefigaro.fr/europe/20050714.FIG0132.html

Zurich gets the Euro2008 go ahead-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=5942663&cKey=1121335392000

More news for Swiss footie fans - Wankdorf stadium opens this weekend.

by fnarr fnarr

Fri Jul 29, 2005 16:26

Wankdorf stadium the new 32,000-seater stadium, Stade de Suisse, is at SFr350 million ($272 million) the most expensive built in Switzerland to date.

Over the past four years it has risen from the rubble of the old Wankdorf, scene of the 1954 World Cup final.

But the Bern project did not have an easy ride.

There was a competition and at the end of a tortuous process the contract went to Lausanne-based architects Luscher/Schwaar/Rebmann to build the spanking new Wankdorf.

"The roof looks very beautiful," he remarks. "I always pictured the wings of a plane and that’s what makes it special."

It is on the roof that energy firm BKW-FMB installed the world’s biggest solar-power installation ever mounted at a sports facility.

read more about wankdorf here:-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=107&sid=5975167&cKey=1122643332000

Happy Helvetian Day! you don't need 2 b swiss 2 have gone to santa's at switzers, today's Swiss Day

by :-)

Mon Aug 01, 2005 20:24

Speeches and fireworks celebrating Swiss National Day have taken place in all corners of the country – and at 4,634m in the case of minister Joseph Deiss.

From Kosovo Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey made a plea for liberty and justice, but Swiss President Samuel Schmid was heckled during his speech and left early.

Economics Minister Joseph Deiss was the topographical, if not political, highlight of the day: he had spent six-and-a-half hours climbing to the Dufourspitze, the highest point in Switzerland.

The 59-year-old was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the peak’s first ascent – by five British climbers and three local guides.

Deiss later called for "cosmopolitan patriotism" and pragmatic relations with other states.

[He was accompanied by a non-specified i-t-a-l-i-a-n minister]

Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is on a four-day visit to Kosovo, also underlined that freedom does not rule out cooperation.

She wished that her compatriots would occasionally think of Swiss hero William Tell and his commitment to freedom for the entire community.

[he was very commited to freedom for the entire community and survived the shoot to kill allegations of his youth to become a respected elder helvetian on the lines of the slightly better know grandpa smurf who of course wasn't helvetian at all]

Calmy-Rey was due to join some 220 Swiss soldiers stationed in Suva Reka, a southern Kosovo town, to celebrate Swiss National Day.

But Fulvio Pelli, president of the centre-right Radical Party, criticised what he saw as a constant falling back on history by conservatives.

"We’re running the risk today of resting on our laurels and sleeping through the future," he said.

[wake up call! its the wake up call!]

Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, from the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, surprised no one when he said freedom, self-determination and autonomy had made Switzerland strong and prosperous and neutrality should not mean pro-actively poking your nose in everywhere.

[no-one was surprised]

Heckles
[àbuse, booing, hissing and slow clapping]

Blocher has a knack for grabbing the headlines, but August 1 this year will be remembered for the heckling of Samuel Schmid, who in his television broadcast earlier in the day had called on Swiss people to continue the country’s "success story".

Of the 2,000 people on the Rütli Meadow who were told by the Swiss president to "go forward, mentally and physically", around 600 were rightwing militants.

This section of the audience heckled and seriously disrupted Schmid’s speech with lengthy chanting, especially whenever mention was made of foreigners or integration with other cultures.

[thats a big heckling no! to foreigners]

The president of the Rütli committee apologised over the microphone to Schmid for the often personal heckles such as "Traitor! Traitor! Half a minister!" but the Swiss president left before the national anthem was played.

[wonderful ditty.]

The Rütli, in central Switzerland on the shore of Lake Lucerne, is known as the cradle of the Swiss Confederation and traditionally draws crowds – especially rightwing ones – on National Day.

Some 800 anti-fascist demonstrators took to the streets of Lucerne in a protest against racism, fascism and the presence of the extremists on the Rütli.

[there were more than 800.]

Elsewhere, some 430 farmyards dotted around Switzerland hosted this year’s "August 1 Brunch on the Farm" which attracted around 200,000 visitors.
[some were foreigners]

The Swiss Farmers Association has organised the event since 1993 and the 430 farming families once again laid on an incredible homegrown spread of bread, butter, jam, muesli, fruit and rösti.

In the German capital, Berlin, half a dozen cantons from central Switzerland used the National Day as a publicity opportunity.

[what a surprise, the swiss are normally publicity shy]

In the biggest celebrations outside Switzerland, 8,000 Berliners enjoyed cherry gateau, a giant Alp salad (including 2,000 onions), alphorn music and traditional flag-throwing among other traditional Swiss entertainment.

The cost of the SFr800,000 ($628,000) [approx600,000€] event in Berlin was split between the cantons and sponsors.

the Swiss look forward to the Austrian presidency of the EU to further bind ties to Europe.

Sat Dec 31, 2005 13:55

Following on from the 2 rounds of voting on Shengen in which the eastern cantons (those bordering Austria) of Swizterland demonstrated a clearly less welcoming attitude to "potential eastern migrants", 2006 will be the year the Helvetians finally decide whether or not Europe is worth it.

Of course the day they voted "yes!" for the new Wankdork stadium, (see above) was briefly reported as a victory for Europe. Leader writers on the right of EU affairs (including 2 Irish news outlets) plunging the depths by almost declaring "the French are stupid to vote no! the Dutch are copying them! the Swiss love us!!!"
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=107&sid=6334976&cKey=1136019711000

Quite. Therefore this Austrian presidency will after all deal with "enlargement issues", and the continuing thorny problem (continental europe side at least) of the "2 tier europe".
Interestingly the model for European prosperity is still based on "borrowing". In fact no-one is richer, just a few people in northern states get more credit than they used to, and it seems to last longer "especially on holiday". I very much doubt that this a sustainable economic model for the newer states.

The left in switzerland will be opposing further EU integration. & I'll update on their actions and naturally for I believe they will play a part in the "secret & great work" :- "Bringing down the €U"

So in which central European country can you get the sack easier than Switzerland

by kvm

Sat Dec 31, 2005 23:52

This discussion surprises me. It is past time Switzerland joined the EU. At the moment, migrant workers there have no f***ing rights at all. I have seen a legal verdict concerning the dismissal of a migrant worker, who was mobbed by right wing racists, and sacked. The judge agreed with the sacking, saying that if a person does not fit the team, that justifies dismissal.

I worked there for 15 months up to last year. When I wanted to extend my permit so I could draw unemployment benefit, for which I had paid thumping compulsory contributions, I was told to piss off. And with no permit, you are not available for work, so no benefit. It is Catch 22 for migrant workers. Full EU membership would stop this racist crap. The NPD and other German neo-fascist parties have always demanded Swiss style laws for migrant workers in Germany.

Anyone who genuinely supports migrant workers in Europe will want to see CH in the EU. And by the way all those fancy votes you are blathering on about are for Swiss only. Non National residents don't get to vote.

CH was the last country in Europe to give women the vote, to this day, key elements of the political set up are based on decisions taken by men only.
The country is about as progressive as a banshee.

The EU has many warts, but the fact is that powerful German and Italian unions have put workers rights at the core of the union. Fascist states such as Spain and Greece were kept out till they signed up. Any alternative available now means worse conditions for workers.

For the masses in many small countries such as ireland, joining the EU removes crippling interest rates caused by speculators, giving a rapid increase in living standards for millions of workers.
Even the migrant workers Irish Ferries plan to exploit will be able to get off the boat and get a new job. No chance of that in Switzerland, you are a tied labourer, stuck with one boss, strike and you can get sacked and thrown out at once.

There was nothing romantic about poverty and emmigration in Ireland up to the late seventies.

hi KVM "a short iosaf like ripost and reply and sincere happy 2006"

by iosaf - "please read other press & other indymedia countries in 2006"

Mon Jan 02, 2006 00:24

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences up the Helvetian mountains. & if you had written what you did about the powerful unions of Germany and Italy putting workers' rights at the heart of the €U about 8 years ago, I might have agreed up to a point.
That point was the quintessence of the transformation of middle and eastern Europe through trade unionism in the late 1980's (e.g. solidarity in Poland) to the creation of a 25 state €U under Ireland's presidency 2004 and the election of a centre right wing party in Poland itself the direct heir of ... "powerful unions in Poland in the 80s who put democracy centre stage". You see, KVM things have changed. €urope is now a continent of 480 million people at the beginning of the XXI century. Precarity has replaced traditional "trade union source support labour". Germany and Italy together count for less than 35% of the population. & neither have left wing governments. Your experience is not unique nor unusual nor typically "swiss". It is the experience of most "migrants" within the european continent. Where the idealistic project "where working rights were at the heart" has given way to an attack by globalised "anglo-saxon led" capitalism.

This article was a "ping" to remind readers about the Shengen and Dublin agreements, and of the curious status of Switzerland, & has nothing to do with the price agreed for gas by the eurocracy of 480 million people with the neighbouring former soviet republics. No animals were harmed in the writing of this comment. 2006 will be pretty much like 2005 but we're all a second out C/f
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73590&type=otherpress
If you're not a second out, you're a geek and need therapy. Or else you've an atomic clock.
Get therapy. Can't go wrong in 2006 with-
therapy - the gym - stopping cigarettes and above
all asking

"what has Europe really done for Europeans?"

after all there were other ways to make the Irish rich and make up for their horrible 70s and stuff.

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Dublin & Shengen €U Treaties - How the Swiss voted & not voted.

Comments (13 of 13)