The Swiss say no

摘要

Switzerland is a paradox. Here is a small country surrounded by members of the European Union. Its citizens speak three main languages, none of them (at least as written) specifically Swiss. Of its 7m people, one-fifth come from outside. It lives off cross-border commerce, selling chemicals, machinery and precision instruments to the worfd, welcoming tourists and bank depositors from it. Swiss companies include such giant multinationals as Nestle, Ciba-Geigy and abb, itself born of a big cross-border merger. Many international bodies are headquartered in Switzerland: the Red Cross, sports bodies, bits of the United Nations. Yet the Swiss, traditionally neutral in war, have kept out of even the main peaceable cross-frontier organisations as well. They belong to the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, for instance, but not yet to the un. That may change after a referendum in 2002. But as for the far more restrictive bonds of the eu, no way: on Sunday, in a referendum calling for an immediate start to negotiations on eu membership, almost 77% of those who voted said no.