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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 01, 2003

New President Says Switzerland must Join EU Eventually

Pascal Couchepin, Switzerland's president for 2003, is convinced Switzerland must join the European Union, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on the eve of the new year.


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Pascal Couchepin, Switzerland's president for 2003, is convinced Switzerland must join the European Union, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on the eve of the new year.

The SRI quoted Couchepin as saying: "In my opinion, we shall and must be a member of the EU. But the journey to Brussels would be a long, slow process."

He said the Swiss people have to take small steps because they have a system of direct democracy. It means that decisions about joining or not joining the EU will be put to the people through a public vote.

With the expansion of the European Union, Switzerland is the only country in western Europe outside the Union.

When talking about his goals for 2003, Couchepin said: "My maingoal, which is one shared by all Swiss presidents, is to reinforcenational unity and understanding between linguistic regions, and to prevent social conflicts from getting out of hand, to ensure the Swiss have benevolent attitude towards one another. "

Couchepin takes over the presidency for the first time after a year in which Swiss relations with the European Union were strained over the issue of banking secrecy.

Despite threats of sanctions, Switzerland persisted in its refusal to hand over information concerning accounts held by EU citizens in Swiss banks. It did however propose a 35 percent withholding tax on the savings income from these accounts.

Having failed to agree on how to combat tax evasion, EU's finance ministers decided in early December to put the issue back on the table in 2003.

According to Swiss Confederation law, the seven cabinet ministers take turns to be president for a year.


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