Switzerland is not cuckoo for European Union

Traditionally neutral country fears increased European immigration

Banking, mountains and expensive timepieces are some of the first things that come to mind when one thinks about Switzerland, a small republic in the heart of Western Europe.

An opportunity to learn more about Switzerland was offered last Thursday when guest speaker Rene Schwok, associate professor at the University of Geneva, spoke about the nation's unique political system. The Alp republic is the only Western Eur opean country that is not aligned with the European Union (EU) in one form or another.

"At one point Switzerland was considered a model for European integration because it's a country made up of three populations (German, French and Italian) and t wo main religions, Catholic and Reform," Schwok said. "Switzerland was supposed to be a model, but the model doesn't want to follow the others."

Love of independence and a fear of losing their national identity to the giant called the EU led the ma jority of Swiss citizens to vote against joining the union in a recent referendum, Schwok concluded.

The Swiss political system has a number of peculiar features. Citizens can vote on almost anything at anytime - including foreign policy.

The 26 cantons (states) that make up Switzerland are fiercely independent and reluctant to give up power because of centralization.

Neutrality is another important factor of Swiss society. Many believe that Switzerland was untouched by the two world w ars because of this agreement with the rest of the world.

Immigration is very controlled; most Swiss are afraid that the open door policy within the EU would lead to a flood of other Europeans moving to Switzerland.

American farmers who compl ain about their EU counterparts being subsidized by their governments should know that Swiss farmers get even more money from their leaders - roughly twice as much.

"French-speaking Swiss massively supported the EU proposal, whereas Swiss Germans w ere mostly against it," Schwok said. "There is this ambiguity; on one side we are very cosmopolitan (many U.N. agencies have their headquarters in Geneva), but on the other side we are very isolationist."