Swiss less Euro-phobic than EU vote suggests

Survey found that less than one third of Swiss population refuses EU membership Keystone Archive

A referendum two months ago which saw the Swiss overwhelmingly reject starting immediate negotiations on EU membership should not be interpreted as a "no" to joining at a later stage, according to a survey published on Saturday.

The survey found that only 26 per cent of the people who voted against an immediate start to negotiations were opposed outright to EU membership.

In the vote on March 4, just under 77 per cent of Swiss voters rejected a proposal, put forward by centre-left groups, which called for immediate talks on joining the EU.

The government and most parties had rejected the proposal, saying the timing of any such discussions would be premature. The government, whose long-term goal is to take Switzerland into the EU, is proposing that talks start in 2004.

Immediately after the vote, the government said that while the size of the “no” vote had been high, it was not an outright rejection of EU membership.

The survey, produced by the Institute for Political Science at Bern university, appears to bear out the government position.

It shows that 40 per cent of voters rejected the proposal because they didn’t want to see an immediate start of discussions; 51 per cent said they were against membership under the current circumstances; and nearly 10 per cent gave a variety of other reasons.

The March vote also underscored the political divisions between French- and German-speaking regions. The survey shows that considerably more French-speakers (49 per cent) than German-speakers (36 per cent) rejected the initiative because they thought immediate membership negotiations to be premature.

Opposition to EU membership under current circumstances was also greater in German-speaking areas.

Opponents of Switzerland joining the EU have argued in the aftermath of the vote that the referendum result effectively blocks the start of any such negotiations for at least seven to 10 years. The government rejected that interpretation of the result.

Last year, Swiss voters approved a series of bilateral accords with the EU, mostly covering trade issues. The ratification by the EU’s 15 member-states is expected to be completed this year.

swissinfo with agencies