Switzerland profile – Timeline – BBC News

2005 June – Voters in referendum support joining EU Schengen and Dublin agreements and extending rights for same-sex couples.

In the most serious breakdown in Swiss railway history, power failure brings trains to a standstill for several hours.

2005 September – Referendum vote goes in favour of opening job market to workers from the 10 newest European Union countries.

2005 November – Referendum backs five-year ban on use of genetically modified crops.

2006 September – Voters in a national referendum back plans to make their asylum laws among the toughest in the West.

2007 January-May – Ex-directors of Swissair, which collapsed in 2001, are in the dock in Switzerland’s biggest corporate trial. They are all cleared.

2007 September – Row over Swiss People’s Party’s ”kick out the black sheep” poster aimed at deporting foreigners who commit crimes.

2007 October – Elections. Swiss People’s Party (SVP) boosts its standing as the biggest group in parliament, scooping nearly 29% of the vote.

2007 December – Swiss People’s Party (SVP) quits the governing coalition after one of its leaders, Christoph Blocher, is forced from his cabinet seat.

2008 June – Voters reject referendum initiative to limit naturalisation of foreigners by allowing Swiss communes to vote on individual cases.

2008 October – Libya cancels all oil deliveries to Switzerland and withdraws assets worth billions of dollars from Swiss banks in response to the arrest of leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Hannibal. Mr Gaddafi and his wife were detained for assault but the charges were later dropped.

Switzerland unveils a $5.3bn rescue plan for its largest bank, UBS, which was badly hit by the global credit crisis.

2008 December – Swiss People’s Party (SVP) rejoins the governing coalition with the election of party member Ueli Maurer to the Federal Council.

Switzerland scraps routine passport controls at all its borders after joining the EU’s Schengen Agreement.