Swiss voters on Sunday approved plans to join the EU's passport-free zone, an indication that Switzerland is moving away from its traditional isolation in the region.
In final results of the referendum, 55 percent of voters agreed to join the EU's Schengen and Dublin accords, which Parliament ratified last year.
Although Switzerland is not a union member, under the Schengen accord, which was already adopted by 15 nations, it will dismantle passport controls at its borders with other countries in the zone and increase security cooperation.
The Dublin accord harmonizes asylum procedures among members of the group.
President Samuel Schmid said at a news conference in Bern that the result "will allow Switzerland to intensify its cooperation with the EU."
In a poll taken two weeks ago, 55 percent of those asked said they would vote "yes." It was unclear whether the recent votes in France and the Netherlands to reject the EU Constitution had any impact, though the outcome indicates that the 10 percent of potential voters who were neutral or undecided might have moved into the "no" camp.
The far-right Swiss People's Party might also have reduced support in the past few weeks by linking the referendum to fears about immigration, unemployment and crime.
On Sunday, Swiss voters also agreed to allow homosexual couples to register their relationships.
The law gives same-sex couples the same legal rights as married couples in financial matters like taxes. But it stops short of allowing them to adopt children or obtain access to fertility treatment.
For Switzerland, which has carefully guarded its neutrality in foreign affairs for much of the past 400 years, an agreement to join accords like Schengen and Dublin shows how things are changing.
The government, which supports eventual membership in the EU, says that cross-border threats such as terrorism and organized crime mean the country has to work closely with other nations.
Since the early 1990s, voters have twice rejected plans to begin negotiations to join the union, which now has 25 members.
The government acknowledges that Swiss voters are still far from backing membership.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers on Monday said that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is less than previously thought, with a 50-50 chance within the next 10 billion years. That is essentially a coin flip, but still better odds than previous estimates and farther out in time. “As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated,” the Finnish-led team wrote in a study appearing in Nature Astronomy. While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast might be moot
RSS