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Comment by joxdosba

6 days ago

What threats? I was simply pointing out the undeniable fact that Switzerland is utterly dependent on the benevolence of the EU.

The EU has unlimited ability to punish Switzerland with extreme precision and at a low cost, Switzerland has no meaningful ability to go tit-for-tat even at a very low level.

> At any rate, there's nothing about being an island that automatically stops a crazy genocidal EU trying to starve another country. If I recall history correctly, less than 100 years ago a big European country was attempting to starve Britain to death by systematically sinking its cargo convoys. Then just a few decades later east Germany was trying to starve Berlin by shutting down rail links. Note: both attempts failed.

Yes, you’ve succeeded at explaining why it makes a difference that Britain is an island. At the very extreme end, the EU would actually have to go to war with them instead of just issuing a NOTAM and sending a few cop cars to monitor border crossings.

Also, FWIW, at no point during Brexit has Switzerland been a better partner for the EU than the UK has.

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joxdosba

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inglor_cz  6 days ago

The EU would have to rely on German, Austrian, French and Italian cops/soldiers to actually enforce any sort of physical blockade against Switzerland.

I am not certain if all the respective governments would simply obey such an instruction if they didn't have any beef with the Swiss themselves.

Which now means that the EU has to block not just Switzerland, but (say) Austria, which means compliance from four other countries (CZ, SK, SI, HU), which is even less probable etc. etc.

Ultimately, the EU is really good at processing papers, but doesn't have the power necessary to initiate physical punishments of this sort unless the relevant member states agree.

  • joxdosba  6 days ago

    Trade policies are very much set at an EU level.

    > The EU would have to rely on German, Austrian, French and Italian cops/soldiers to actually enforce any sort of physical blockade against Switzerland

    Without these treaties, there absolutely will be permanently manned border checkpoints.

    None of these countries love Switzerland enough to be willing to end the EU over it.