Compare and contrast the impact that European Integration has had on Croatia and Switzerland

Thèmes abordés

European Integration, intégration européenne, Croatia, Croatie, Switzerland, Suisse, European Union, Union Européenne, neutrality, neutralité, direct democracy, démocratie directe, federalism, bilateralism, Copenhagen criteria, critères de Copenhague, nationalism, Tudjman, enlargement, élargissement

Résumé du document

According to E. Bomber and A. Stubb (2003) , the European integration is 'a process by which sovereign states relinquish (surrender or pool) national sovereignty to maximize their collective power and interests.' Usually, the European integration involves different institutions where states relinquish their sovereignty: for instance the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the Western European Union (WEU), NATO and of course the European Union. (EU) As the subject is quite large and in order to be as concise as possible, we will talk about the impact of European Integration on Croatia and Switzerland only trough the European Union.

We must add the European Integration had had an impact on Switzerland since the creation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) on the 3rd of May 1960, far before signing the Bilateral Agreements with the EU. However, we can state that the 'Croatian journey to the EU really only began in any meaningful sense in 2000' , with the death of Tudjman, the really anti-Europe first president of Croatia from 1992 to 1999.

The outline for this essay would be: Has the prospect of EU membership had a positive impact on Croatia and Switzerland?

On the first hand, we will compare the influence of European Integration on the Swiss and Croatian political and economic sphere and on the other hand, its impact on the controversial issue of nationalism and human rights in both countries.

Extraits

[...] The regional co-operation only began with Tudjman's death in 2000. Indeed, the Regional Approach policy for countries of the Western Balkans, launched by the European Union in April 1997, was completely rejected by Tudjman, as it was ‘seen as an attempt to re-establish a neo-Yugoslavia. In response to [this], Croatia under Tudjman amended its constitution by adopting an article that specifically prohibits any association of states that could lead to a renewal of Yugoslavia.' However, since the coalition of anti-Tudjmanist forces, led by Stjepan Mesic, won the parliamentary election in 2000, the Croatia foreign policy deeply changed. [...]

[...] (2005) ‘Croatian Opinion and the EU's Copenhagen Criteria', Chatham House Briefing Paper, EP-BP 05/04, December. Websites Survey about the proportion of non-nationals in Switzerland. (2010). ‘Multiculturalité: population étrangère' Retrieved December from the ‘Office federal de la statistique' Website. Website:http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/dienstleistungen/forumschule/them/02/03a.html Editorial (Monday 30th November 2009): ‘Switzerland: hatred beneath the harmony'. Retrieved January from TheGuardian.co.uk. Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/30/switzerland-minaret-referendum-islam Article (30th March 2010) : ‘Les Eurosceptiques toujours majoritaires en Suisse.' Retrieved January from the Reader's Digest website. [...]

[...] [ ] The EU made it a condition of starting negotiations that the International Tribunal declared it was satisfied that Croatia was now fully cooperating with the Tribunal. It did so on 3 October and the EU moved to start discussions the following day.' If the prospect of EU membership through the Copenhagen criteria has been a real motivator for Croatia to increase Human Rights and the protection of minorities, it has not been always easy for the country to change nationalism into pro-Europeanism. [...]

[...] (Almost the half of the Swiss population: 48,2% against EU accession in 2010.) And if most of the political parties were pro-European, which is far from being the case, the executive branch is so weak in Switzerland that this is impossible for it to impose its political ideas. Finally, the last pillar of Swiss identity is federalism. Paolo Dardanelli states that ‘perceived threats to federalism deriving from Europeanization outside or, indeed inside the European Union thus loom large in Swiss thinking on “Europe”.' One of the main questioning of Swiss People according to the loss of federalism is ‘the capacity [of cantons] to continue performing their traditional role of pillars of the system' when we know that European Union is very centralized. [...]

[...] (Swiss newspaper.) Website : http://fr.rd-presse.ch/pressemitteilungen-fr-ch/magazin-readers-digest/les-eurosceptiques-toujours-majoritaires-en-suisse Definitions of ‘Copenhagen criteria' and ‘Acquis Communautaire.' Retrieved January from the EU Website. [...]