WHAT’S so great about living in Switzerland? Well, the flag is a big plus. Yes, I know – most jokes about this small, mountainous, landlocked country are dire. Something to do with that famously dismissive remark about Switzerland’s greatest achievement in history being the cuckoo-clock – people just don’t have very strong feelings about the country. Mind you, it has the highest income in the world, hasn’t been in a war since 1815, and could be seen as a possible model for a non-nuclear, independent Scotland.
Oh, and it isn’t in the European Union, the Customs Union or the European Economic Area, which are three reasons why Switzerland has become flavour of the month on the Tory back benches. As Theresa May faces yet another defeat this week in the Commons, a raft of Brexit luminaries like the MEP Daniel Hannan and the Times commentator Dominic Lawson have popped up saying that Switzerland should be the model for an “independent” United Kingdom.
READ MORE: SNP stands alone as Theresa May puts final offer on Brexit on the table
This follows a lecture last week by Professor Michael Ambuhl, who used to lead negotiations with the EU for the Swiss government. He said that the whole issue of a hard border in Northern Ireland, post Brexit, was a nonsense. Of course you can have a frictionless border, he said, “with a snap of your fingers”. After all, thousands cross the Swiss border every day. He is correct – though many who have actually crossed the Swiss border says it’s far from frictionless in practice. But it is true that Switzerland has no hard border with the EU. However, I’m not sure the Brexiters have quite thought this one through.
First of all, Switzerland has accepted free movement of people since 1999, which is supposed to be anathema to red-blooded, Brexit Britons. Worse, unlike the UK, Switzerland joined the Schengen passport-free zone in 2008, which Brexiters claim is responsible for spreading Islamic terrorism and other horrors. The far right parties in Switzerland want to renegotiate this because they think their borders are just too open, but the EU is refusing to budge.
Theresa May has repeatedly said that free movement is not acceptable because Britain has to “take control of her borders”. She also insists that Britain must “take control of her money”, yet Switzerland pays into the coffers of the EU in order to gain access to the European single market, which is essential for the wellbeing of its lucrative pharmaceutical industry. It also accepts the euro for all intents and purposes with shops, ATMs and vending machines all using the currency along side the Swiss franc.
READ MORE: SNP stands alone as Theresa May puts final offer on Brexit on the table
As for Britain “taking back her laws”, Switzerland is subject to the principle laws of the single market but has no say in them. It is one of the founding members of EFTA, the European Free Trade Association, which has its own court, which mostly recognises the rulings of the hated (by Tories) European Court of Justice. Switzerland is also a decentralised federation in which citizens have a right to a referendum on key issues. They had one last year on the Universal Basic Income (it lost). Voters have blocked formal membership of the EU or the European Economic Area (EEA) over the years, so instead Switzerland has negotiated 120-odd bilateral deals adopting all the key rules of the single market, now and in the future, without actually joining it.
Theresa May could say that Switzerland has a “bespoke arrangement” but it is very much bespoke on Brussels terms. Switzerland is not in the Customs Union so it can negotiate deals with third (non-EU) countries, to a limited extent. Nor is it subject to the Common Agricultural Policy or directly under the sway of the European Court. However, this autonomy comes at a considerable cost, and not just because the Swiss accept free movement. Switzerland is in much the same relationship to the EU as Norway, in that it accepts all the terms and costs of membership without having any say in their formulation.
However, if this is now to be seen as the model for post-Brexit UK – a kind of Switzerland-on-sea – then a lot of people will say “bring it on”, not least in Scotland. This is pretty much the bespoke arrangement that the Scottish Government proposed in the 2016 Brexit White Paper, Scotland’s Place in Europe. It would certainly allow Scotland to continue to bring in workers from the rest of Europe, because Britain would not only be accepting free movement, it wouldn’t even require passports. And the Swiss currency compromise, whereby the euro is freely in use, could also make life easier in the UK since people could use it in the shops. Switzerland is a similarly a member of most EU bodes like the environmental agency, ERA, Euratom, Europol, Horizon.
READ MORE: SNP stands alone as Theresa May puts final offer on Brexit on the table
Of course, the Swiss model is not as good as membership of the European Union itself, mainly because it doesn’t have any representation in EU institutions like the parliament or the EU Council. It has no say in the running of the market on which its trade is dependent or in other laws. But if the Brexiters are now selling this as Britain’s future, then perhaps we should be encouraging them. Better a sinner repenteth. It would almost certainly resolve the Irish border issue because Britain would be in full alignment with the single market.
However, let’s be clear: Switzerland is in the EU in all but name. Its economy is wholly reliant on it and it has accepted all the supposedly objectionable aspects of the European Union, above all, the abolition of borders. It may seem bizarre that the Brexiters have persuaded themselves that this borderless state of dependency is a suitable destiny for an independent UK. Perhaps they realise they’ve lost the argument and are seeking a face-saving solution.
UK voters are increasingly recognising that the Brexit case is full of holes and are looking for a way to limit the damage. As for Remainers – don’t diss the Swiss. They should see this as a bridge-head back into the European Union, because that is precisely what it is.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel