A Swiss in Europe

Ever since the end of World War II, Switzerland was often considered isolationist and xenophobic by fellow Europeans. I never really knew why our country had this rather negative image, but this weekend it seems like the momentum has changed - once again.

I'm pretty sure, the reason for our image in the World is to be found in our neutrality, which often was misinterpreted inside and outside of Switzerland and led to different perceptions on both sides of the border. The truth surely lies somewhere in the middle.

It is no secret that the idea behind our neutrality is self-preservation. If the Swiss Confederation had not been recognized neutral at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, chances are that it would have ceased to exist in the war-driven Europe of the 19th Century. And it most probably saved the country from being invaded by Nazi Germany immediately during WWII. This might sound egoistic to some, but self-preservation is what shaped most of the countries as we know them, and still accompanies them today. Thinking neutrality is a selfless act is a false interpretation.

For Switzerland, neutrality too often meant not to take any actions with the intention of not taking sides. But even taking no action is an act. During WWII, not interfering with the Third Reich actually easily led to the impression that we were on the same side as Germany. Not that a small country could have changed anything, but it sure does not look good. On numerous other occasions, neutrality was misinterpreted in Switzerland: We didn't support the embargo during Apartheid in South Africa, refused to become full member of the U.N. and the European Economic Area (EEA). This didn't happen out of xenophobic or isolationist feelings, especially since isolationism doesn't work for small countries very well, but mostly because of a wrong definition of our neutrality.

It wasn't always like this though, Switzerland has a long humanitarian tradition and was a founding member of the 1920 League of Nations. But only recently, the Swiss have begun to realize again the importance of a more active foreign policy. In the recent past they said 'yes' to a full membership in the U.N. and bilateral contracts with the European Union (EU) allowing free movement among other things. This weekend, the Swiss people decided with a 20% margin to include Romania and Bulgaria into the free movement contracts with the EU.

It's a result we can be very proud of as Europeans and it's great to see that our fellow Europeans applaud us for that decision. It's a great moment to be a Swiss in Europe. Let's just hope that this won't be overshadowed by the same negative prejudices again soon. Although I personally doubt it.