Swiss parliament grants millions for EU research projects
Both chambers of the Swiss parliament have agreed to allocate CHF58.3 million for European Union research programmes.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The funding forms part of the supplementary budget for 2026, which totals nearly CHF90 million.
The Federal Council had initially requested CHF67.3 million for research programmes. The House of Representatives reduced this by CHF9 million, removing a reserve that had become obsolete.
The additional funding is to be used to pay the mandatory contribution required to participate in European programmes such as Horizon Europe and Euratom. Switzerland has been associated with these programmes again since 2025, following several years of estrangement.
There is no question of Switzerland being excluded once again from this, the world’s largest research infrastructure, argued lawmakers.
Only the Swiss People’s Party was against the funding. It accuses the EU of taking advantage of Switzerland by increasing the budgets required to participate in its programmes. This argument was dismissed by other parties.
The government has already announced that it is considering a cut of CHF40 million in the 2027 budget to offset this additional funding, given the strained state of federal finances. It is due to make a decision this summer.
More
Switzerland successfully returns to Horizon Europe science programme
Translated from French with AI/mga
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 english@swissinfo.ch.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.