Brussels, 04/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The International European Movement has adopted a resolution by which in welcomes the fact that the "people and cantons will be called to decide through a referendum on 4 March" on the launch of negotiations between Switzerland and the European Union, and hope for a positive result in this ballot, which, it says, "should allow for Switzerland's accession to the European Union by the second half of the decade". In its resolution, the European Movement stresses that, "by its geographical position and its economic and political system, Switzerland is an integral part of Europe" and observes that the Swiss Government, which had deposited a request for EU membership in 1992, has made "repeated declarations" by which "membership is and remains its strategic objective".