Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Did you know… the average Swiss resident travels 30 kilometres a day, by car, train, motorcycle, bike and on foot, making a total average journey time of 80 minutes? This is the shortest recorded figure since 1994, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The only journey time that increased in the 2021 census published today was that of electric bike owners – one in every five Swiss households now has one, compared to 7% in 2015.
Read on for other news and stories from Switzerland.
In the news: UN Security Council protest, euthanasia doctor, and migrants and welfare.
- Ambassadors from Western countries, including Switzerland, boycotted a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday, sending low-level diplomats instead. Diplomats were protesting against a speech by Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who is accused alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for illegally deporting children from Ukraine and the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
- Swisspolice should be able to start using “facial-comparison” technology alongside fingerprint scans to help identify suspects, after the government agreed to fund a new identification system.
- The former vice-president of Swiss euthanasia organisation Exit faces yet another potential court appearance to answer for providing lethal drugs to a woman. Pierre Beck, a retired doctor, helped the healthy 86-year-old woman die alongside her ill husband in 2017 by providing a lethal dose of a sedative and preanesthetic pentobarbital.
- Some migrants are being forced onto poverty by Swiss laws that can remove residency rights if they claim welfare payments, a conference has heard. Since 2019, the authorities have been empowered to revoke residency permits if a foreigner relies too heavily on welfare benefits.
- A French court has given a 16-year jail sentence in absentia to a man believed to be the mastermind of an armoured car robbery in Switzerland and the kidnapping of a security guard’s daughter.
- The Federal Court has rejected an attempt to overturn begging restrictions in the Swiss city of Basel. The complaint had been brought by a variety of NGOs and lawyers, complaining that the measures violated fundamental rights.
Over 800,000 Swiss citizens live abroad.
The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reportedExternal link today that the number of Swiss nationals living abroad grew by 1.5% between 2021 and 2022 to surpass the 800,000-mark. The steady upward trend over the past ten years continues: between 2002 and 2022, the total number rose by 34%.
Europe is still their preferred destination (510,900). The largest Swiss community lives in France (206,400), followed by Germany (98,100), Italy (51,200), the UK (39,500) and Spain (25,800).
Elsewhere, 23% of the Swiss abroad live in North America, 7% in Asia, 4% in Oceania and 2% in Africa. The largest communities outside Europe are in the United States (82,700 people), Canada (41,200), Australia (26,100) and Israel (22,800).
Between 2002 and 2022, the total number of Swiss abroad rose from 598,900 to 800,000. The increase by continent has been even, but Asia saw the highest growth (+115%). The number of Swiss citizens in Asia has more than doubled over this period, rising from 25,400 to 54,600.
Meanwhile, the resident population in Switzerland increased by 0.8% to 8.8 million last year. The rise was driven by immigration: after a slowdown in new arrivals during the Covid-19 pandemic years 2020-2021, last year saw 190,500 people moving to Switzerland, a 15% increase on the previous year, the FSO said. As in previous years, the most common place of origin of immigrants were the neighbouring countries of Germany, Italy, and France.
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Government promises report into Credit Suisse debacle/cancels executive bonuses.
In today’s developments, the Federal Council saidExternal link it would put together a report on the takeover of Credit Suisse by its rival UBS – within one year. This is in response to a dozen questions from parliamentarians.
The report will examine “too-big-to-fail” bankingregulations. It will also focus on the specific factors that led to the collapse of Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, banking bonuses, the powers of the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the instruments available to the Swiss National Bank in the event of a crisis.
All these questions will also be discussed next week during an extraordinary session of parliament devoted to the Credit Suisse crisis. Both chambers of parliament will have to endorse the financial guarantees given by the federal government for the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse (CHF109 billion). They were authorised on March 19 – the same day as the announcement of the rescue of Credit Suisse. Parliamentarians will have no choice per se: a refusal would have no legal effect.
The question of a parliamentary commission of inquiry (CEP) is not on next week’s agenda as there is still no agreement between chamber committees.
On Wednesday, the Swiss government instructed Credit Suisse to cancel or reduce all outstanding bonus payments for the top three levels of management and examine whether those already paid can be recovered.
Bonus payments up to the end of 2022 will be cancelled for the executive board, and then halved for management one level below the board and reduced by 25% for those two levels below.
Under Swiss banking law, the Federal Council can impose bonus-related measures on a systemically important bank if it received state aid from federal funds.
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