REGISTERED BY AUSTRALIA POST - PUBLICATION No. VBH 6369
Bulgaria and Cyprus have yet to meet border control standards required for membership.
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Swiss headlines in 2008 - Schengen and again a new Federal Councillor
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MARCH 2009
Long queues for European travellers at border controls in Switzerland are now a thing of the past. European Union (EU) interior and justice ministers formally approved non-EU member Switzerland’s accession to the Schengen passport-free zone from December 12, 2008, becoming the 25th member under the unique mechanism. The EU ministers agreed that Switzerland had met standards for security conditions to join the Schengen zone. Citizens from Schengen members can travel passport-free across the entire zone. Land border checkpoints are to be closed, but people entering Switzerland by air from Schengen nations will still have their passports checked until March 29, 2009. The agreement to set up the Schengen zone was signed in Schengen, Luxembourg in 1985. So far, 24 nations have joined the zone, including two nonEU countries, Norway and Iceland. Among the 27 EU states, Britain and Ireland have opted not to join the Schengen group, while Romania,
International cooperation in the context of the agreement facilitates travel for individuals by eliminating systematic checks at common borders of signatory states. At the same time, new measures have improved international cooperation between justice and police authorities to combat crime. These include security steps and tighter controls at external Schengen borders and greater crossborder police cooperation using the Schengen Information System (SIS). Switzerland signed the Schengen accord on October 26, 2004. Swiss voters approved it on June 5, 2005 with 54.6% in favour. Official informative note: Switzerland will now apply the Schengen regulations concerning the issuance of visas. The visa will be valid for entering the territory of all Schengen member states. This will also apply to Schengen visas issued by other Schengen States which will permit entry to Switzerland. For information concerning changes of procedures and methods of issuance of visas, we recommend that you consult the Federal Office for Migration (FOM) website: http://www.bfm.admin.ch or the Swiss Consulate General in Sydney.
Changed Swiss Federal Council for 2009 After the dramatic reshuffle of the Swiss Federal Council in late 2007 at which Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher was replaced by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has regained its place in government as the Swiss Federal Assembly elected hardline conservative Ueli Maurer to the Federal Council, succeeding Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid. Maurer just scraped by, gaining the required majority of 122 votes out of 243 after three rounds of tense voting in parliament. He has taken his seat as defence minister when the new Council took office in January 2009. Switzerland’s seven-member Federal Council is set up, according to the socalled “magic formula” in place since 1959, to guarantee stability with right and left-wing ministers from the four main parties running the country side by side without a prime minister. The seven members of the Swiss Federal Council in 2009 are Doris Leuthard, Hans-Rudolf Merz, who took the presidential baton from Pascal Couchepin, Moritz Leuenberger, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Eveline WidmerSchlumpf and Ueli Maurer.
Ueli Maurer gestures prior to being elected by the Parliament into the sevenmember government on December 10, 2008 in Bern
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