I bet there are people on their side that think they gave up too much money like on our side we think they are not giving enough. The matter of fact is that they have been strong armed into paying a fairer share because they let their economy be too dependent on EU labour and interconnected with EU.
What do you mean with “… let their economy be too dependent on EU labour and interconnected with EU”?
The reason we can strong arm them into giving us more money is that they need people from the EU working in their economy. If we suspend the right of free labor movement with them it bricks their economy.
Other than that, they do more commercial business with EU than the past so it affects their economy if we start taking away benefits and increases tariffs.
A proudly independent European nation confronted with a stark political choice: keep EU single market access but only by making financial payments, taking migrants and giving up judicial power.
This time the question is not one for Brexit Britain — but Switzerland.
After more than a decade of grinding talks with Brussels, the Alpine country has reached a deal to keep and improve its access to the EU’s single market.
proudly independent
As a Swiss let me just clarify this: only old stupid nationalist idiots delude themselves to believe this. In reality we are completely dependent on our neighbours and the EU. We are a tiny country with a surprisingly large economy, which is exactly as strong as the trade we can do with EU countries and the highly skilled EU workers we can attract.
Thank you. I love Switzerland, but they (you) benefit massively from the EU, as does all member states. Pretending otherwise it’s just dumb.
We stand together or we get eaten by the US or China. Simple as.
This looks like Basel, is it Basel? Why photo of Basel for Switzerland?
Because Basel is a city in Switzerland?
Yes, but it’s like a small city?
It’s the third largest in Switzerland. Very multicultural, in the sense that it’s on the borders with France and Germany.
third largest
Oh, I didn’t know that. I loved that place but I thought it’s like… you know, deep province small city.
Depending where you’re from this might be a perception issue. Cities in Europe are generally smallish on modern city world scale. 200.000-500.000 inhabitants, with just a few larger city exceptions per country. There’s just a LOT of those medium-large cities and they are often all rather near to each other. How a “city” is defined can differ a lot, many urban areas consisting of many entangled and interdependent cities are technically still all their own (historic) “city”. Look at the Ruhr area for example, the Randstad, Flemish Diamond, …
No, no, you don’t have to explain that to me, I’m from Poland. It’s just that Basel is like, small and lacking skyscrapers even for me (aka “cozy”), so I always thought during my time there that it’s like, IDK, Perth - not really known world wide nor really associated as the profile picture of the country - and thus my confusion. Does that make sense?
Skyscrapers =/= big city. Basel is a very well known city in western Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands…). Known for it’s beautiful old town, trams, many museums. It’s the cultural capital of Switzerland. Also with people who never went there. As for “not big”, it’s just not the case, it spreads out into Lörrach, Rheinfelden, Saint-Louis, lots and lots of people from FR and DE work in Basel, go visit it regularly etc. The commuter attraction reaches easily into Freiburg and Mulhouse, with thousands going there daily to earn a way higher Swiss paycheck. The wider urban area goes towards 900.000 people! Compared to polish cities too it’s not that small. It’s only the old town and the river area that gives that vibe (stayed out of the wars, nothing was destroyed…). Really the lack of skyscrapers is a very unreliable way to judge how “big” a city is! Basel by the way houses the tallest buildings of Switzerland! Roche towers. High rise is just very uncommon in Switzerland, but they get high density living with regular apartment buildings. I really don’t understand where your “Basel is a small provincial town” impression is rooted.
Maybe symbolic being so small yet sharing borders with two EU countries?
Internationally yes but in Switzerland it’s considered a large city, because it’s the 3rd largest, after Zürich and Genève, but before Lausanne and Bern (the capital)
