[adev_]

> And what good does it do? The EU cannot speak in a single voice - there is no foreign minister, no defense minister, no whatever minister.

Nor can Switzerland. And still it is one of the best country world wide both in term of living and economically.

Distributed federal power like Switzerland trades quick decision making for resilience.

If it might look up 'messy' on the surface, it is in fact a quality. A very valuable one in fact: because it is exactly what prevent fucked up like Trump to happen in the EU.

[ExoticPearTree]

I've never seen the Swiss foreign minister being contradicted by another minister or by an official from a Canton.

But the EU foreign minister can be contradicted by basically any country president/prime minister or their foreign ministers if it says something that is not aligned with every other EU member.

[adev_]

> being contradicted by another minister or by an official from a Canton.

Then you are misinformed.

Because it happens continuously.

Canton executive argumenting again "conseil fédéral".

Local Syndic (Mayor) arguing against Canton decision.

Local parlement trying to address or delay legislation or arguing against Berne ones.

Just open a random news paper.

This is democracy, like it or not.

[ExoticPearTree]

You misunderstood me. If Kaja Kallas says "the EU will do X", then the French or Spanish foreign ministers can say "no, we will not do that". So the EU does not do X because it upset a big country, it will maybe do X-Y or not do it at all if X is dependent on the money spent by France or Spain, or some of their facilities or whatever.

In your example, the mayor can criticize the canton decision, but he cannot do anything about it. That's the difference.