Swiss parliamentary chamber approves funds for EU programmes

National Assembly says yes to 58.3 million more for EU programmes Keystone-SDA

Switzerland is set to release CHF58.3 million for European Union research programmes. The funding is part of the 2026 budget supplement of almost CHF90 million.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The government had initially requested CHF67.3 million for research programmes. Parliament reduced this by CHF9 million, eliminating a reserve that had become obsolete.

The extra money is to be used to pay the compulsory contribution for participation in European programmes such as Horizon Europe and Euratom. Switzerland has been involved in these programmes again since 2025, after several years in the cold.

Lawmakers argued that it was out of the question for Switzerland to be excluded once again from the world’s largest research infrastructure.

Only the the Swiss People’s Party was against the funding. It accused the EU of playing games with Switzerland by increasing the budgets needed to participate in its programmes. This argument was rejected.

Supplement for rail cargo

The government has already announced that it is considering a cut of CHF40 million in the 2027 budget to compensate for this supplement in view of the tense situation of federal finances. A decision is expected this summer.

No less than CHF7.6 million extra is also earmarked for the European Space Agency. Almost CHF20 million more is to go to Swiss Federal Railways for cargo transport, and CHF3.16 million for car loading at the Furka tunnel.

The sector has been experiencing financial difficulties for some time. It is undergoing major changes. Parliament adopted the supplement totalling almost CHF90 million.

At the same time, it approved the State Account 2025. The dossier now goes to the Senate.

Join the debate:

Adapted from French by AI/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]