The cabinet has announced that federal responsibility for education, research and innovation will be combined into one office within the economics ministry.

However, it rejected calls for a further reorganisation, including the creation of a security ministry.

The decision is a response to parliamentary demands that all educational matters be aligned within the same ministry.

It will see responsibility for federal institutes of technology, as well as education and research transferred from the interior ministry and integrated into the Federal Professional Education and Technology Office within the economics ministry.

To relieve the burden on the economics ministry, the Federal Veterinary Office will be transferred to the interior ministry, grouping matters of animal and human health within the same ministry, the government said in a statement. 

The Integration Office, which deals with matters concerning Europe, will become the sole domain of the foreign ministry, the government said.

“The government is convinced that this reorganisation will allow it to avoid duplication and exploit synergies to face the key challenges,” President Micheline Calmy-Rey said.

She added that it had taken the government more than ten years to agree on the latest ministerial overhaul. 

The changes will come into effect on January 1, 2013.

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