Swiss EU vote to test future integration with Europe News
Swiss EU vote to test future integration with Europe

[JURIST] Swiss voters are set to determine the future direction of their small country's role in Europe in a referendum Sunday. The Swiss are not voting on the EU Constitution – traditionally-neutral Switzerland is not a member of the Union [EU backgrounder on EU-Swiss relations] – but Swiss citizens will nonetheless decide whether to adopt common border controls with the European community. Though a majority of Swiss voters support an increasingly close association with Europe, in recent weeks the margin has decreased as France [JURIST report] and the Netherlands [JURIST report] recently rejected the EU charter. The battle over the direction of Switzerland pits the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP) [official website in Swiss-German] in the "no" group against the strong pro-business lobby seeking to integrate and get out the "yes" vote. The Financial Times has more.