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.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS