ABSTRACT

This book offers an up-to-date assessment of the state of Switzerland-EU relations with the aim of drawing lessons from the Swiss experience to shed light on the challenges facing the UK post-Brexit and, more broadly, on how non-member states can adapt to "integration without membership".

The book covers the main issues in the Swiss experience of dealing with the EU over the last 30 years. These include the determinants of the 1992 vote, the architecture of the bilateral agreements signed since then, the economic interests at stake, the role played by immigration, the impact on the country’s federal system, the political, social, and cultural factors shaping attitudes to integration, and how the "Swiss model" has featured in the discourse about Brexit. The concluding chapter identifies the key lessons Switzerland’s experience offers for the British debate on the country’s relations with the EU post-Brexit.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, European politics, Swiss Politics, British Politics, Brexit, and more broadly to international relations.

chapter 1|5 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|14 pages

Looking back

1992 as a critical juncture

chapter 3|18 pages

The economic dimension

chapter 4|16 pages

The bilateral approach

Achievements and limitations 1

chapter 5|22 pages

The question of immigration

A challenge to national identity and social cohesion

chapter 6|12 pages

European integration and state structures

What connections?

chapter 7|14 pages

Political parties and Europe

An enduring dilemma

chapter 9|16 pages

Rooting for Europe

Territorial patterns in voting behaviour

chapter 11|9 pages

Regionalism and Euroscepticism

The case of Ticino

chapter 12|16 pages

Learning from Switzerland after Brexit

More barriers than breakthroughs

chapter 13|12 pages

Conclusions

Insights from Switzerland’s experience