Supranational structures

Having helped found the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Switzerland at some time even considered membership of what were then the European Communities.

When the European Communities were founded, Switzerland was not in favour of the economic integration approach reflected by them. Instead, it helped found a more traditional organisation, namely the European Free Trade Association. However, in 1992 the Swiss Federal Government decided for a different approach and requested talks about a possible accession of Switzerland to the European Communities. Due to developments in Switzerland, this request was put on ice in the same year. Very recently, in summer 2016, Switzerland decided to formally withdraw the request for membership talks. This was after we shot this video and it shows how complex and fluent the discussion on why Switzerland does not belong to the European Union remains.

If you are interested in further information about the Swiss federal system and the poll from 2015 that is mentioned in the video, you will find some links below.