Switzerland Today

Hello from Lausanne,

where a spring bulb is trying to flower on my balcony, despite leaves falling from the trees. Perhaps it's a message to the ongoing COP climate conference in Egypt? As controversy continues over the upcoming football World Cup in Qatar, we take a look at the links between that country and Switzerland.

First, here's my pick of the day's news:

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In the News: Alleged information leak at the foreign ministry, the ongoing waltz for the future cabinet, Swiss consumers buy more own brands and a battery made from paper.

• Planning for Swiss president Ignazio Cassis’s visit to Ukraine on October 20 was kept quiet for security reasons. But apparently someone leaked to the media and the foreign ministry is not amused. It confirmed on Friday a report in Le Temps newspaper that it has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office. Cassis travelled to Kyiv from Poland and held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on reconstruction and humanitarian aid.
• Who will take posts in government when two ministers step down at the end of the year? A selection committee of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party has recommended that two candidates be put forward to succeed Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. There are currently five,  including only one woman,  Michèle Blöchlinger. The committee left the choice of the final ticket to the parliamentary party. The centre-left Social Democratic Party is also looking for a candidate to succeed environment minister Simonetta Sommaruga. There are two women in the running so far.
• Swiss consumers are buying more supermarket own-brands as they feel the pinch from the rising cost of living, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reportsExternal link on Friday. All the big chains are noting this trend, it says. Own-brands usually cost less than other products and the Swiss are watching their centimes amid rising energy prices and higher inflation. “The issue of prices is becoming more and more of a concern for our Swiss clients,” Lidl spokesman Mathias Kaufmann told RTS.
• And a water-activated biodegradable battery made of paper and powered by salt and inks features among the 200 best inventions of the year in TIME Magazine. It was created by researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA). “It sounds impossible: Just add water to a piece of paper and get energy,” saidExternal link TIME Magazine. This battery could also be an answer to growing environmental concern over electronic waste, says its EMPA inventor. 

© Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Qatar’s never-ending controversies around the World Cup don’t deter Swiss business

As we gear up for the football World Cup kicking off in Qatar on November 20, controversy continues over that country’s human rights record. But this has done little to deter the Swiss business and political elite from the glint of Qatari purchasing power, as Geraldine Wong Sak Hoi reports. 

Publicly, Swiss leaders may tow a careful line on the subject of human rights, but they make no secret of their desire to strike lucrative business deals with the energy-rich state or get a share of its liquefied natural gas. Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, a frequent visitor to Qatar who is stepping down at the end of the year, will make a final official trip there to talk shop with his counterpart, Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari – and catch the Switzerland-Brazil match on November 28.

With a trade volume totallingExternal link CHF708 million ($715 million) in 2021, Qatar is only Switzerland’s fifth most important trade partner in the Middle East (the United Arab Emirates tops the list). Watches and jewellery, precious metals and pharmaceuticals accounted for most exports to the emirate. In 2021 trade was down a whopping 52% compared to 2020.

These figures, however, don’t tell the whole story. Qatar, which has been accused by its Gulf neighbours of financing extremist groups, has become the top customer of Swiss war materiel. In 2021 it bought Swiss air-defence systems worth nearly CHF210 million for the purpose of security at World Cup stadiums. This autumn Bern also approved the sale of 6,000 rounds of ammunition to Qatar for the Eurofighter, the European combat jet, for an undisclosed sum.

Some 30 Swiss firms in Qatar employ around 1,000 people in the country. Swiss banks are in full expansion mode, and  other Swiss sectors such as hospitals and hotels want to further capitalise on purchasing power in the emirate. That’s not all:  In the midst of an energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, there’s also talk of purchasing liquefied natural gas from the world’s biggest exporter.

Keystone / Fredrik Sandberg

A landmark war crimes case targets a Swiss CEO

A Swiss citizen can be tried in Sweden for alleged complicity in Sudan war crimes when he was boss of Swedish oil firm Lundin Petroleum. The firm’s Swedish ex-chairman, a resident of Geneva, is also targeted in this potentially landmark “universal jurisdiction” case. 

Sweden’s Supreme Court has ruled that Swiss citizen Alex Schneiter, a former boss at Lundin, can be tried in Sweden. He had argued that was not the case, because he is neither a citizen nor a resident of the Nordic country. But the court ruled his ties with Sweden were enough. 

Sweden’s government gave a green light in 2018 for Schneiter and Lundin to be charged for assisting suspected crimes in Sudan between 1997 and 2003 by fueling the country’s oil wars in the south. Both men have denied the charges.

They are being prosecuted under the principle of “universal jurisdiction”. This allows, under certain conditions, anyone to be prosecuted anywhere in the world for serious international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes), for which there is no statute of limitations (time limit for prosecution).

This is a potentially landmark case. Philip Grant, director of Swiss NGO TRIAL International and a specialist in this field, says that to his knowledge “this would mark the first time a corporate actor – here a Swiss national acting as a Swedish oil company executive – would be tried on the basis of universal jurisdiction”.