It is that time of November when it is cold enough to already be winter but the first snow still has to come. Fog covers the ground which is still hard and moist in these morning hours. I walk with my son up to the hill at the north side of the cemetery. I know that he is too young to understand. Nevertheless I felt like he should see this. I take a deep breath; the chilly air hurts my throat. “Let’s do it then”, I say, more to myself than to my son. However he nods. We walk towards an unimposing grave; it’s almost the last one in its line. There used to be some flowers on it but they are, of course, all withered by now and nobody ever makes an effort to seed new ones or foster the old ones. Devoutly we are standing in front of that squalid gravestone. I read its epitaph; at first for my own then out loud to my son who can’t read yet. It says:

European Union
1992 – 2030

While campaigning for visionary ideas it has been overthrown by obstinacy.

Requiescat in pace “Did somebody die?” he asks. I answer in affirmative whereupon he wants to know how. “It… she…” (I always imagined the European Union to be woman, a lady actually, full-bosomed and with soft, welcoming hands) “…she has been killed.” He raises the next question in his highpitched, innocent voice. “Who did kill her?” How I’d like to explain him everything! “It was us. Switzerland did kill her. Well, actually Swiss people.” He makes a sad face.

If he were old enough I would explain him why and how Swiss people, we, killed the European Union. The murder weapon, if you want so, was a construct called „bilateral agreements“. It is a blunt object, I know, but it broke the neck of the European Union. Actually it all began even earlier: The Swiss people’s vote against an entry to the European Economic Area in 1992 (which had only a very narrow majority by the way) was path braking; how it turned out not only for Switzerland but also for the European Union. The relationship between those two players was in the beginning, after 1992, developing not bad though: the bilateral agreements were founded (in the EU considered an interim solution, in Switzerland regarded as the perfect solution for the eternal future). Twenty years later the situation had already changed. After several other votings it seemed clearer than ever that Switzerland was not going to join the EU. On the other hand the European Union was not very amused when they realized that for Switzerland the bilateral agreements were not an interim solution at all. Clever people could probably already at this time foresee the dangers and possible consequences of the Swiss behaviour. Still the European Union was not able or maybe not willing to exert enough pressure on Switzerland to make it change its attitude. They just liked other countries to join because they wished to do so and not because they had to do so. Now, in the year 2032, we know that they had underestimated the impact of the bilateral agreements.

Why did the collapse become inevitably? With the Swiss policy of cherry picking, other countries started to insist on “special agreements” according to their own interests as well. This new trend created a big problem for Brussels. In the beginning the EU tried to solve it by agreeing on compromises and giving the state governments more autonomy. This did not work out too well. After some time the demands grew too absurd and incompatible with the idea of the European Union. Sweden and Denmark wanted to leave the Single market and create a new one with Norway. Hungary asked for permission to reintroduce the monarchy.

The only value which makes Europe capable of competing against countries such as China or the USA is its closeness. With this new problem the EU was about to game away this value. They suddenly started to refuse all the different demands which made, one after another, the member states contract out of the EU. In the year 2030 the only country, which had not left the Union, was Scotland (which was after the declaration of independence in 2028 the last country to join the EU). That is why the European Union is buried now in Denholm, Scotland.

One day my son will be old enough to understand. It is his generation which has to found a new construct for Europe. Europe does actually need such a construct; the last dark months have pointed that out well. We leave the cemetery; on our way out we pass the graveyards of Democracy and Liberty. The sky is dark.

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