“Switzerland closes the door on East Europeans”, announces the front page headline of the Tribune de Genève, which argues that the measure “amounts to grandstanding”, because “free movement needed to be subject to control to remain acceptable”. Le Matin argues that the initiative will have “little practical impact”, while Le Temps insists that it is a “purely cosmetic” measure –

In activating the clause included in the agreement on free movement with the EU, the Federal Council wanted to send a clear message to those who are increasingly concerned by the upsurge of European immigration in Switzerland.

In German-speaking Switzerland, the press is mainly concerned about the effect the move will have on EU relations. Tagesanzeiger predicts a decline “in good will towards Switzerland, which is increasingly perceived as recalcitrant”, while St-Galler Tagblatt remarks that for the Federal Council, it was important to show the people that it is not intimidated by the prospect “of upsetting the EU”.

A week after its publication, this cover, along with an accompanying article that is discriminatory and racist, continues to provoke widespread criticism in the international press. The Central German Council of Sinti and Roma has complained of demagoguery and has demanded the weekly be withdrawn from newstands.

In Berlin, the Tagesspiegel has investigated the story behind the photo and discovered that Weltwoche, reputedly close to the populist Swiss right, took the picture out of its original context. The intention of the Italian photographer, Livio Mancini, Tagesspiegel writes, was to demonstrate the plight of Roma families in Europe -

Mancini photographed Roma children in the slums of the city of Gjakova in Kosovo, where their families washed up after the war. Their hovels are built on a toxic landfill, where they live off what they can find in the garbage to eat or to sell.... The series of photos of these children at the landfill is not depicting an isolated tragic case. The ten to 12 million Sinti and Roma are the biggest minority in Europe and live in the worst conditions. The majority are poor and threatened by pogroms. [...] Mancini’s photographs criticise this situation. (In Weltwoche) they were just twisted around to make the victims into perpetrators.

In an email to the Tagesspiegel Mancini denounces the “abuse of my photograph.”  Weltwoche has responded to the harsh criticism by defending its “facts”. “The abuse of children for criminal purposes”, the magazine declares, has been obscured by the controversy, but it avoids discussing its lack of “visual ethics”. Livio Mancini, nevertheless, is pleased that the theme of the poverty of the Roma has been brought to public attention.

According to Le Temps, the major winners of the election are the new Democratic Bourgeois Party (PBD), a more low-key splinter group of the UDC, which picked up 9 seats, nine more than previously, in the National Council and the Vert'libéraux (Free market Greens), Green Party offshoot, won 12 seats, a nine seat gain. These parties "show a new centre emerging," says the paper, which is "certainly still weak in terms of seats but sufficient to create a new dynamic. Their weight will seriously complicate discussions for the renewal of the Federal Council [government] next December".

... is a head-on challenge to the logic that has motivated financial markets to seek refuge [in the Swiss franc] from a euro that is on the verge of collapse and a dollar dragged down by gigantic debts and deficits. The SNB is right to assume that any semblance of stability in the Eurozone and the US economy is highly unlikely in the medium term. For exporting businesses, the surge in the value of the Swiss franc had been so violent and rapid [since the start of this year, the currency has gained 11% against the euro and more than 15% against the dollar] that it had become poisonous and unbearable.

“Welcome to the euro-club,” announces Handelsblatt, which illustrates its headline with a photomontage showing the EU flag at the foot of the Matterhorn. For the Dusseldorf business daily, the SNB’s decision will mark “the end of an era. Switzerland, which has always set great store on its independence, has linked its currency to the euro. Exporting industries were unable to cope with all of the suffering caused by a strong franc.” Conservative daily Die Welt remarks that “there will be no more islands” in Europe. The newspaper continues -

... For years Switzerland has benefitted from a special status of conferred by low taxes on capital, inviolable banking secrecy, and a stable economy” — that is until “the excessive strength of the national currency became an existential threat to exports and tourism. The SNB is right to assume that any semblance of stability in the Eurozone and the US economy is highly unlikely in the medium term. For exporting businesses, the surge in the value of the Swiss franc had been so violent and rapid [since the start of this year, the currency has gained 11% against the euro and more than 15% against the dollar] that it had become poisonous and unbearable.

“The franc braces itself,” headlines Gazeta Wyborcza, which notes that “the Swiss government took everyone by surprise, when it pegged the exchange rate for its currency and announced that it would defend it to the end.” For the Warsaw daily -

... This intervention is an act of desperation by the SNB, which has tried for months to devalue the franc. A strong currency means in effect that "made in Switzerland" is expensive to export, that Swiss companies are laying people off, that the Swiss are going to shop in neighboring countries, which have become cheaper. What weapons does the SNB have at its disposal? First, huge financial reserves, then it can also run the money printing machines. This is what central banks in Central Europe and the US do when they need more cash to buy treasury bonds of countries at risk of bankruptcy.

“For the Swiss negotiators it is already clear that the issue is not whether the country should comply with this requirement, but how,” affirms the Geneva newspaper, which notes that “the United States have already indicated that a ‘global solution' such as that worked out with Germany and Great Britain, does not interest them."

This comes some weeks after Germany, followed closely by Britain, signed agreements with Bern to “regularise” their respective nationals’ assets parked in Switzerland. “This agreement will permit London to tax secret accounts held by British citizens in the Swiss Confederation,” explains Les Echos. For the French daily, “by guaranteeing the anonymity of the account holders,” Switzerland “has preserved the essential element of its banking secrecy.” And indeed, the country has “managed to fracture European unity in the fight against tax evasion.”

According to the most recent estimates, the construction of the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA) will cost 18.7 billion Swiss francs (14 billion euros), of which 12.2 billion will be spent on the GBT and the Ceneri Base Tunnel, which will feed into it. “That is 3.9 billion more than the budget presented to parliament and the people 12 years ago,” remarks the newspaper.

Now that excavation work on the tunnel has been completed, Le Temps wonders if “Switzerland will not be subjected to further demands from the EU for an East-West corridor: “The enlargement of the EU to include the counties of the former Eastern Bloc has had a major impact on traffic flows. Demand may have grown on the North-South axis, but it has soared on East-West routes.” However,  Swiss authorities believe that “East-West traffic will pass to both the north and south of the country,” on the  Paris-Strasbourg-Munich and Spain-Lombardy-Balkans routes.

The Swiss Confederation is not the only European country to avoid the sport of putting all of one's eggs into a single basket. To the north, Norway, which has since 1992 been a part of the European Economic Area (the EEA, composed of the 27 member states plus Liechtenstein and Iceland), holds on to its cherished independence, while adopting nearly all European community directives. Sweden has refused to adopt the euro, but certain rebel Swedish cities in fact freely use it. The United Kingdom plays both sides of the European membership question with disconcerting ease: "I am part of the Union, but I don't want its single currency, which doesn't mean that I can't have my say." In short, for many countries it is a case of "I love you, but marrying you is out of the question".

Membership in the Union is not - and must not become - obligatory, but it doesn't seem to have the same meaning for members and their neighbours: there are those who swear by the Union, those who take it half-seriously, and those who reap some benefits by association... the list of variations is long.

Instead of following the example of Norway, which is, in the words of editor Eva-Lie Nielssen, a "clandestine passenger in the EU, but with a business class seat", wouldn't it be better to acknowledge this state of affairs and propose a series of options for limited membership in the Union, such as the adoption of its single currency? It would be like riding in the same train, but not necessarily in the same car, and perhaps not even in the same class. And countries could simply choose the dishes they prefer from the European menu. Iulia Badea Guéritée

If the SVP plan were implemented, Switzerland’s population would increase by 17 million (it currently stands at 7 million) with Stuttgart becoming its largest city. “We should facilitate integration of these regions which are suffering under the rule of the European political class that has no interest in them whatsoever. Their citizens have been looking jealously at our self-governing state and long for a democracy with human face”, explain SVP politicians.

The Swiss authorities have not commented on the proposal which nevertheless caused much glee in the German embassy in Bern. Its employees are said to have been wondering when the Swiss will “start demanding access to the sea”. Their good humours disappeared at seeing the results of a poll conducted by the Swiss weekly Weltwoche. It showed that 63% of nearly 1,800 German, Italian and Austrian polled living in the border regions said they were in favour of joining Switzerland. Hardly surprising considering the fact that salaries in Switzerland are much higher than in, for example, Germany and that Germans already constitute a majority of lecturers at many Swiss universities.

"Apparently even Silvio Berlusconi tried to calm down the Libyan dictator." The Zurich daily points out, however, that this friendship between European states hinges on self-interest: "They are well aware that they could soon be in for the same ordeal.” For the time being, they are all concerned by Libya’s refusal to issue visas to Schengen area nationals. "If all of Europe brings pressure to bear, things will change, even in Libya," concludes the paper, calling on the EU to turn up the pressure until the second “hostage” is freed.

The regime in Tripoli has closed its borders to Schengen area passport holders in reprisal for Switzerland's decision to blacklist Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his entourage – the latest episode in a conflict that began in 2008, with the arrest in Geneva of the volatile colonel's son for mistreatment of his servants. In Europe, no questions are being asked about the Libyan leader's extreme response to the Swiss arrests – which included slapping jail sentences on two Swiss businessmen and urging the UN to abolish Switzerland. On the contrary, EU heads of state continue to fall over each other in their attempts to call on or host visits from Gaddafi. Now that the conflict has resulted in a ban on visas for Europeans, instead of taking the opportunity to put an end to Libyan coercion, they are more than prepared to let Berne sort out its troubles alone.

This is all the more regrettable in view of Europe's aspiration to act as a standard bearer for human rights, equality, and the rule of law. For the moment at least, it seems the EU is unlikely to make a fuss when such universal values are threatened. In another incident, the Israeli secret service has been accused of stealing the identities of 11 EU passport holders to allow its agents to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai. Demands by the states concerned – the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Germany – for an explanation from Israeli authorities have simply been ignored. Israel's discourteous attitude is all the more surprising when you consider that, unlike Libya, it is supposed to be an ally – and for some, a future member – of the European Union. But do not expect Catherine Ashton, Europe's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, to pick up the phone and call Tripoli or Tel Aviv, if only to express the European Union's "astonishment" at such hostile behaviour. She is still too busy searching for Haiti in her largely unused copy of the world atlas. Gian Paolo Accardo