On 23 April, at the Congress of the Association of Swiss Foreign Trade Chambers, Bénédict de Tscharner, Ambassador and Head of the Swiss Mission to the European Communities, sets out Switzerland’s European policy after the negative outcome of the referendum on the accession of the country to the European Economic Area (EEA).

In a referendum held on 6 December 1992, the Swiss vote against the accession of their country to the European Economic Area (EEA). The German cartoonist, Walter Hanel, portrays the path leading to the EEA as one fraught with pitfalls.

On 18 May 1992, the Swiss Federal Council drafts a report analysing the advantages and disadvantages of possible Swiss accession to the European Community.

‘No comment’. In December 1991, cartoonist Hans Geisen illustrates Switzerland’s mistrust of the policy of European integration and emphasises the fact that, unlike the other European states, the country does not wish to take part in the European Union enlargement process.

On 30 October 1992, the European Parliament adopts a Resolution on economic and trade relations between the European Community and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).

In the November 1992 edition of the journal EFTA Bulletin, Swiss diplomat Hansjörg Renk calls for the establishment of a European Economic Area (EEA), outlining the advantages that this agreement would offer the countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

In autumn 1992, in an article in the monthly publication EFTA Bulletin, Hadar Cars, former Swedish Trade Minister and Chairman of the Committee on the European Economic Area (EEA) in the Swedish Parliament, outlines the way in which Swedish MPs are drafting the bill which will allow the Parliament to approve the Agreement on the EEA signed on 2 May 1992 in Oporto by the Foreign Ministers of the Twelve and by those of the seven Member States of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).