Swiss Claims of Sovereignty

Abstract

The question as to whether Swiss-EU bilateral relations affect Swiss sovereignty in the context of Europeanisation is read in light of the deconstruction of sovereignty that reveals its fictional essence and spectral presence that becomes a matter of credibility. Switzerland’s claim of sovereignty is that of “having a say” that is not formally affected by the bilateral relations with the European Union. The credibility of this Swiss claim of sovereignty is based on the empirical possibility of testing that this assertion is not formally deniable. Yet, the literature on European integration and on Europeanisation (of Switzerland as well) conceptually raises the possible detectability of incredible claims of Swiss sovereignty within the implementation of bilateral agreements. This may potentially occur when implementation passes through a precise series of events in which the subject/agent reveals the incredibility of the sovereign/principal’s claim of sovereignty. These events deal with the detection of components that are potentially sovereignty erosive such as path dependence, cultivated and functional spillover, and plurality of principals as theorised by the literature and applied to the Swiss-EU study-case. Simultaneously, given the necessary distinction between direct/indirect Europeanisation of Swiss policies, the presence of these components is not taken as evidence of incredible claims of Swiss state sovereignty, if not put in a comparative perspective. The implementation of non-directly Europeanised Swiss public polices is indeed a comparative touchstone to assess whether direct Europeanisation and Swiss-EU joint committees affect the credibility of Swiss claims of sovereignty within the implementation of the Bilateral Agreements.