Calmy-Rey praises close ties with Europe
Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has said Swiss-European relations have never been so close, with Bern sharing the burden for the future of the continent.
Calmy-Rey was speaking in a radio and television broadcast on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, of which Switzerland is a member.
She said that the successes and failures of Europe were also felt in “good neighbour” Switzerland, a non-member of the European Union.
“A third of the revenues of our economy comes from the big European market,” she noted.
“But there’s more. If, for example, Europe fails to stabilise the Balkans, in particular Kosovo that is marked today by insecurity and instability, Switzerland will also feel the consequences.”
Common bonds
Calmy-Rey, who is this year’s Swiss president, said common bonds tied Bern and Brussels.
“We want a Europe of political and economic cooperation. We want a Europe of peace… We want a Europe that is state-of-the-art when it comes to fighting for our environment.”
She said Bern’s policy toward Europe was guided by solidarity. “We assume our common burden and contribute to the future of our continent,” she said.
The Swiss electorate voted last November in favour of a SFr1 billion ($830 million) contribution to ten new members of the EU, with payments of SFr100 million a year for the next decade.
One cloud in the picture is the current dispute between Bern and the EU over tax relief offered by some Swiss cantons to foreign companies.
Brussels has argued this is a violation of the 1972 free trade accord between Switzerland and the EU, an accusation that Bern rejects.
Marty prize
In related news, Swiss pro-European supporters have honoured a member of the Swiss Senate, Dick Marty, awarding him their “Europe Prize 2007”.
At a ceremony in Bern in Saturday, the New European Movement Switzerland praised Marty for his role in the exposure of secret CIA prisons in Europe and his defence of European values.
It said Marty’s commitment should be seen as a warning to all European governments not to sacrifice the fundamental principles of Europe on the altar of the fight against terrorism.
For the first time, internet users and not a jury chose the person who in their view contributed the most to the Swiss debate on Europe.
Marty received more than 70 per cent of the votes, which were cast between April 11 and 25. Behind Marty came the former economics minister, Joseph Deiss, writer Adolf Muschg and Bern University’s Forum for University and Society.
The Swiss Foreign Press Association also honoured Marty at the end of April for his courage in pursuing the issue of secret CIA prisons and illegal transfer of prisoners.
swissinfo with agencies
There are two Europe Days celebrated at the beginning of May.
May 5 is the anniversary of the founding of the Council of Europe in 1949 in London. Switzerland joined the Council in 1963.
With 46 member countries, it is the oldest political organisation among states in Europe.
It seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights (1953) and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.
What is now the European Union adopted May 9 as Europe Day at a summit in the Italian city of Milan in 1985.
Dick Marty was appointed by the Council of Europe in November 2005 to investigate claims that the CIA had set up secret prisons in eastern Europe.
In his report published in June 2006 he concluded that 14 European countries had colluded with the US in a “spider’s web” of human rights abuses.
He said other countries, including Switzerland, had been involved actively or passively in the detention or transfer of unknown persons.
At the end of April, he strongly deplored the United Nations Security Council for the “flagrant injustice” of blacklisting individuals suspected of having links to terrorism without evidence of any wrong-doing, flouting its own principles.
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