Mapping Switzerland's differentiated European integration

Abstract

In relation to the European integration process, Switzerland is sometimes called a cherry-picker, and sometimes a quasi-member of the European Union (EU). There are good reasons for both qualifications. Switzerland is the only Western European country that is not a member of the EU, and not even part of the European Economic Area (EEA). While all its neighbours shifted the control over national policy-making to some extent to the new centre in Brussels, Switzerland has resisted any delegation of authority to the EU. Does this mean that Switzerland is the last Gallic village in Europe? The subordination of EU member states to Brussels is neither total nor uniform across policies and countries. The same holds for Switzerland’s autonomy. The outsider concluded a large number of sectoral agreements with the EU and it has continuously transposed EU rules into domestic legislation. Theoretical and empirical studies of the European integration process research the different levels of European integration across policies and member states under the label differentiated integration. This paper proposes to study Switzerland as a case of differentiated integration and presents empirical data that measures the quality of Switzerland’s integration for the period 1990 – 2010. The empirical data shows that substantially, a broad range of EU rules have been extended to Switzerland either via sectoral agreements or via transposition into domestic legislation. This substantive rule extension became, however, only in recent years also legally linked to the EU.