Choose your future

Tomorrow will be a decisive day for Switzerland. The swiss voters will once again decide, if Switzerland should move towards a cooperation with the European Union or choose the "we will do it on our own"-way.

Since I have been living here in London (this city alone has 7 million inhabitants - roughly the same as entire Switzerland) I have realised, how crucial Switzerland's cooperation with the EU is. Switzerland is such a small and insignificant country, it hardly gets any notice, in particular if you are in the media and communication business as I am. All the companies, we have been working with (Sony, Warner Brothers, Universal just to name a few) focus their investments in Europe, especially in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Not only do I think it is naive and silly to think, Switzerland can do it on its own, I even think it is essential for the survival of the swiss economy in the long term to partner up with Europe.

As CNN analizes:
During World War II, Switzerland and tiny neighbor Liechtenstein stood alone in central Europe in maintaining their independence from Nazi Germany. Switzerland considered itself a "special case" as its postwar economy forged ahead of its neighbors.

It is now slowly realizing that its special status may no longer be sustainable. The coalition government favors closer cooperation with and eventually joining the EU, but many of the country's German speakers -- who make up about two-thirds of the population -- are opposed to integration.


Source: CNN

To me, this whole discussion somehow has the flavour of the Olden Days, when people used to think, the Earth was the center of the universe, until we slowly realized, that our planet is just one of a billions. From the outside, Earth suddenly turns out to be completely insignificant. It is time for the conservatives in Switzerland to realize, that this country is just one out of a twohundredsomething - and it's even e very small one. So better parnter up if you don't want to miss the chances of a prosperous future in which cooperation would be more important than ever.