Switzerland

The Swiss government has unveiled its draft mandate for renewed negotiations with the European Union, which will be finalised after consultation with parliament and the cantons.

The Federal Council's overriding objective remains the stabilisation of the bilateral path. It wants to base the negotiations on the package approach adopted almost two years ago. This is based on a package of cooperation and market access agreements, according to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. ...

The Swiss government wants to beef up the country’s defences against cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

In the future, the Federal Council wants the power to ban purchases from suppliers of IT solutions that are considered problematic for Switzerland's security.

On Friday, the government commissioned the responsible communications ministry to submit a draft revision of the Telecommunications Act. In short, the security of telecommunications systems and digital infrastructures in Switzerland should be increased. ...

The Swiss government has reluctantly prepared draft legislation to screen foreign takeovers of sensitive Swiss companies.

The Federal Council was forced by a parliamentary motion to draft up the Bill even though ministers find the measure unnecessary.

The Investment Audit Act is based on a motion by Beat Rieder, a member of the Valais Council of States. The reason was, among other things, the takeover of the Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta by the state-owned company Chem China for $43 billion. ...

Companies domiciled in Switzerland and Liechtenstein continued to repatriate billions from their subsidiaries abroad in 2022.

This total sum funnelled back home amounted to CHF71 billion (almost $90 billion), compared with almost CHF116 billion in 2021, CHF34 billion in 2020 and CHF54 billion in 2019.

The phenomenon was once again concentrated in the services sector, where divestments amounted to CHF68 billion, according to the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on Friday in its regular statement. Once the exclusive preserve of financial and holding companies (CHF26 billion by 2022), divestments have now spread to the transport and communications sectors (CHF29 billion) and banks (CHF19 billion). ...

The area destroyed by two landslides at the end of August in Schwanden will never be habitable again.

The houses in the threatened area that were spared by the landslides will be demolished. The authorities justified the decision on the basis of a new hazard map.

A further landslide in this "red" zone could have fatal consequences, Hansruedi Forrer, the mayor of the municipality of South Glarus, told the media in Schwanden on Friday. As a result, the local authority has been forced to order the demolition of the remaining buildings in the zone, which will also be off-limits in future. ...

Newly elected cabinet minister Beat Jans will take over the portfolio of justice and police from Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, who in turn will become interior minister.

The Federal Chancellery announced the redistribution of cabinet portfolios on Thursday evening.

Guy Parmelin of the Swiss People’s Party remains at the head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. Liberal Radical Party representative Ignazio Cassis will continue to manage the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. ...

The construction chemicals company Sika has inaugurated a new research and development (R&D) centre for the Asia-Pacific region in Suzhou, China. The Zug-based group says it has invested several tens of millions of Swiss francs in the facility.

It will be Sika's second-largest technology centre, after the one in Zurich. The site, which will house around 150 employees, will have a usable surface area of some 9,000 square metres, according to a press release issued on Friday. ...

In the future, flight attendants will no longer have to press a button to count passengers boarding an aircraft – artificial intelligence is set to take over passenger counting at SWISS. Cleaning robots will also be able to answer (some) questions at Zurich Airport.

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will be using cameras to count passengers on short-haul flights from the third quarter of 2024, it announced on Thursday. Instead of the cabin crew, the software from Berlin start-up Vion AI will then record the number of people boarding the plane. From the fourth quarter of next year, the system, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI), will also be used on long-haul flights, according to the press release. ...

After the intense rainfall in Switzerland, the flood situation has partially calmed down in some parts of the country on Thursday. In other areas, water levels continue to rise, leading to a a risk of flooding, particularly on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel.

The critical threshold is expected there on Saturday morning. The canton Vaud authorities are preparing for floods. Emergency services installed sandbags and other water barriers.

In the canton of Bern, water levels remained at a high level. The level of Lake Biel was 430.41 metres on Thursday morning, six centimetres above the flood limit.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is extending its pause in interest rate hikes by keeping the key rate at 1.75% for the second time in a row.

The SNB made its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday. The central bank had previously increased its key interest rate in five successive steps.

Inflationary pressure has decreased slightly over the last quarter, the SNB said in a communiqué on Thursday. However, uncertainty remains high. It will monitor developments closely and adjust monetary policy “if necessary” to ensure price stability in the medium term. ...

Credit Suisse has dismissed its entire wealth management team in China, scrapping its ambition to become one of the biggest foreign money managers in the country as UBS decided not to take on the staff, people familiar with the matter said.

Those let go included at least 20 relationship managers and investment consultants as well as Wang Jing, the chief executive officer of Credit Suisse’s securities venture, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Some support roles were also affected, they said, without being specific on numbers. The division at one point had about 40 staff, one of the people said. ...

The operator of Switzerland’s main stock exchange, SIX Group, has warned of expected losses this year running into billions of francs.

The reason is negative value adjustments to its stake in payments provider Worldline participation and the Spanish stock exchange, which SIX bought in 2020.

The stock exchange operator expects a negative consolidated result in the range of CHF1 billion to CHF1.1 billion for 2023, it announced on Thursday. ...

Credit Suisse, which was taken over by UBS, settled a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into prohibited fund services with a payment of a good $10 million.

Credit Suisse is said to have violated the regulations regarding mortgage-backed securities.

Credit Suisse Securities and other CS units were prohibited from acting as issuers or advisors for investment funds, according to a statement from the SEC published on Thursday night. Nevertheless, they worked in these functions. ...

Flight operations at Geneva Airport were suspended for four hours on Wednesday evening. The reason: A private jet had veered off the only runway and got stuck in the grass.

Nobody was hurt but almost 100 flights were affected.

According to the airport's website, no flights had taken off or landed since around 5.30pm. The runway was reopened around 9.45pm. The fire brigade's operation was over, it said on their website.

The number of university students requesting financial support has risen since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The majority of requests are made from foreign students living in precarious situations.

In 2022, almost 45,000 students, or around 7% of the student population, applied for financial aid. A total of CHF354 million ($407 million) was distributed. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, this represents an increase of almost 20% over the last ten years. ...

Nearly two out of three people are planning to reduce their spending on Christmas presents this year, according to auditing firm EY, following its traditional end-of-year survey of some 600 consumers. This content was published on December 13, 2023 - 14:07 December 13, 2023 - 14:07 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

The average amount Swiss shoppers intend to spend is CHF282, a good fifth less than a year earlier.

“After weak wage negotiations, another significant increase in health insurance premiums and a second rise in the benchmark interest rate with its repercussions on rents, the outlook for 2024 is gloomy, leading to a delayed effect of inflation,” says André Bieri, specialist for the Swiss market, quoted in the report released on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, canton Valais halted the shooting of the wolf packs of Hauts-Forts, Nanz and Le Fou-Isérables. The decision follows an appeal by nature conservation organisations to the Federal Administrative Court.

The appeal against the decision of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to authorise the shooting of these three packs was challenged by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Pro Natura and BirdLife Switzerland at the Federal Administrative Court, wrote canton Valais in a press release on Wednesday. ...

The Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) seeks to set up an advisory body for refugees in Switzerland and at a multilateral level. The commitment is one of several unveiled by Switzerland at the start of the second World Refugee Forum in Geneva.

“The Swiss refugee parliament is an example of good practice in strengthening participation,” said State Secretary Christine Schraner Burgener in Geneva on Wednesday, opening the meeting co-organised with the United Nations. ...

Parliament has elected Beat Jans from Basel to Switzerland's seven-member Federal Council (executive body). He will replace the outgoing interior minister, Alain Berset.

Following three rounds of voting, Jans beat his fellow left-wing Social Democratic Party rivals Daniel Jositsch and Jon Pult on Wednesday. Jans won 134 votes out of 245 in the third round. Jositsch received 68 votes and Pult from Grisons 43. The absolute majority was set at 123 votes. Jositsch was not on the official Social Democrat ticket. This did not prevent him from receiving a large number of votes in each round. ...

Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses are circulating again in Switzerland and putting hospitals under pressure.

Switzerland is in the midst of a strong Covid-19 wave, according to the Federal Office of Public Health. SARS-CoV2 is currently circulating the most widely in Switzerland, followed by rhinoviruses, RS viruses and influenza, the FOPH told Keystone-ATS news agency.

Since Tuesday, it is compulsory to wear a protective face mask at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the Neuchâtel Hospital Network (RHNe). ...

The COP28 climate summit in Dubai adopted a final deal on Wednesday that for the first time calls on nations to transition away from fossil fuels. The environmental organisation WWF Switzerland called it a “partial success”.

The WWF said the final text that describes a transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst impacts of climate change was a "partial success". The outcome of these negotiations, the most important since the Paris climate summit in 2015, is a signal for Switzerland too, it added. ...

Growth forecasts for Switzerland for the next two years have been revised downwards slightly by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute.

According to the latest report of the research centre of the federal technology institute ETH Zurich, real gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by 0.7% this year and rise to 1.7% in 2024. Slightly lower growth of 1.4% is predicted for 2025, the KOF said on Wednesday. ...

Switzerland is moving towards a ban on Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip and carried out a major attack against Israel on Oct. 7.

On Tuesday, the Senate tacitly adopted a committee motion calling for the Islamist organisation to be classified as "terrorist". The House of Representatives will also vote on a similar motion.

Switzerland must adopt a clear position in the wake of the brutal attacks by Hamas. The organisation challenges Israel's right to exist, argued Swiss lawmaker Werner Salzmann on behalf of the committee. Through its attacks on Oct. 7, Hamas has completely discredited itself as an interlocutor. ...

Swiss police on Monday arrested a man suspected of a deadly double shooting in the town of Sion.

The Monday morning shootings in Sion, the capital of canton Valais, left two people dead. Police tracked down the alleged perpetrator in the afternoon.

The man was arrested by the intercommunal police of Crans-Montana at around 4 pm. in the St-Léonard region.

The 36-year-old man had fired several shots at people in two different locations in the town of Sion. Two people died and another was injured. ...

Switzerland will wait until the last minute to decide whether to introduce the OECD's minimum taxation of large corporations.

However, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter is convinced that the majority of countries will introduce the new rule on January 1, 2024.

"Switzerland will wait until the last moment, because we want to be sure that competing places will introduce the minimum taxation as agreed," she told journalists on Monday. The Federal Council (executive body) will decide by the end of the year when the OECD minimum tax will come into force. ...