The European Confederation

Greece, 1st April 2014 – A not yet widely know think tank, suitably named The Golden Cross, with offices distributed in various European capitals, is examining the possibility for European countries and regions to join the Swiss Confederation.

As you might know, Switzerland was founded in 1291 when a few valleys in the Alps claimed independence from the Habsburg Empire. Note: as the valley were poor and did not yield great income we can well understand that the sheriffs might have happily let go of those remote areas. Switzerland then continued to expand annexing various regions, some of which were already independent and others which were previously subjugated to Dukedoms (e.g. Ticino from Milan and Geneva from Savoy).

The reason why the Swiss format has been so successful, for over more than eight centuries, is that it has a federal government and a cantonal government. This allows that every region (some of which not only speak other languages but also have other habits like food, work and holidays) can maintain its identity and its way of life. Only in recent years some of the differences have been evened out as more and more workers need to travel between cantons. We remember the days when e.g. length of school holidays were different between each canton – adapted to the location and tradition of those areas.

The said think tank is now examining how various European regions can start being part of Switzerland. It can well be that some of the adjoining German federal states, which have similar traditions (similar dialects, architecture and way of life as are prevalent in Switzerland) might join first. This organic adherence might also allow sections of present coutries which are in dispute with each other, e.g. the Valons and the Flemish, the Basques and the French, the Catalans from the rest of Spain, North and South Italy, create a separation within the Confederation, and drop the squabbles.

The European currency might become the European Frank, instead of the Euro. The tax system will be studied so that all citizens will pay tax and that the tax rates are reasonable (so that tax avoidance is no more a must just to survive – but a contribution to the province/canton and the confederation). Areas with advantages in tax levies will still remain, e.g. Luxemburg, Zug in Switzerland, etc.

The movement of people will be one of the hottest issues, as already the Swiss have voted a few months ago that they would like to restrict the movement with the reasoning that the country is too overpopulated. We forgot to mention that under the new Confederation all citizens will be allowed, as the Swiss are now, to call for popular referenda on federal laws and constitutional amendments. With a wider Confederation these issues could be easily solved with e.g. setting a population-density quota.

Cantons, around the Mediterranean in particular, will be asked to cut on bureaucracy to speed up creation of new companies and to encourage new investments. This will cut down on people movement towards the north. Why should anyone need leave a beautiful, sunny and warm country for a job in a rainy, cold place? This change will also cut down on overpopulation in certain areas which causes distress at present.

It appears that English will be chosen as the second language of communication across borders. It might well be that the spelling will be changed to phonetic spelling, similar to texting language. Greeks might also be encouraged to move to phonetic spelling and to use the Latin alphabet. This would attract academics from other cantons to teach at their schools and universities, help students and invite investments from non-Greek speaking countries. This last point is still in heated debate, but would make sense as only a population of 10 Million is speaking and writing in Greek.

The flag is still in discussion. In this article we have a temporary rendering from our artist.

We will see in the next few months how things evolve. We will keep you posted.

Related article with quote by Osho: Boundaries