Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Where Switzerland’s image as a neutral site for mediation received a boost today: after Malta in October, the next round of international talks on a Ukraine peace plan will take place in Davos next month.
In the news: high-profile peace meeting heading for Davos.
- Talks on a Ukrainian-led “peace formula” will be held in Switzerland on January 14, the day before the start of the World Economic Forum, the foreign ministry confirmed today. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the event on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. The talks will come after a meeting in Malta in October, attended by around 70 countries – not including Russia.
- Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti paid a short visit to COP28 in Dubai over the weekend, where he reiterated the country’s commitment to phasing out fossil fuels. Rösti also announcednew carbon offset deals with Chile and Tunisia: climate projects in the two countries will count towards Switzerland’s emissions targets. Such offset deals have previously come in for some criticism.
- Swiss Eurovision singer Remo Forrer was the most-searched Swiss on Google this year, followed by footballer Yann Sommer and tennis player Stan Wawrinka, the US company said today in its “Year in Review”. ChatGPT, Credit Suisse, and the war in Israel and Gaza were the most-searched news items. Most frequently asked questions included “why were fake lashes invented?”
Fresh negotiations: the EU’s man in Bern makes optimistic noises.
After pledging to draft a new “negotiating mandate” by Christmas for talks with the EU, the Swiss government could reveal the contours of this much-anticipated document this coming Friday. What’s it going to contain? And is it destined to suffer the same fate as the botched “framework agreement”, dropped in 2021?
Petros Mavromichalis, the EU ambassador in Bern, sounds upbeat in an interviewExternal link with the Le Temps newspaper today. The controversial issues which scuppered previous talks – e.g. the protection of high Swiss salaries against wage dumping, the application of EU citizenship and state aid rules – have been “clarified” in recent exploratory talks, he says; “this time, the risks of failure are less pronounced”. He even says a deal could be wrapped up by the time he leaves his Bern posting in nine months – if both sides show some “political will and determination”.
That said, Mavromichalis, who doesn’t shy away from straight-talking interviews, is not exactly converted to Team Switzerland just yet. He “still struggles to understand why the [Swiss] government closed the door” on talks in 2021; “for a nation built on compromise, this wasn’t very Swiss”, he says. He also raises the classic EU line when it comes to Bern’s attitude of wanting to be part of the EU single market without being bound by all its rules: “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”. However, Switzerland is ultimately itself “deeply European”, Mavromichalis says – and the Swiss political model is not only “compatible” with that of the EU, it “resembles” it.
New Öyster Cult: shelling out for molluscs in Switzerland.
Visitors to the many, many Christmas markets in Swiss cities like Geneva or Zurich might be surprised to find not only vats of mulled wine, but also stalls selling fresh oysters. Defying the landlocked nature of the country, the posh shellfish is visibly becoming a fixture – it is “slowly but surely conquering the market”, the AWP news agency writes today. Last year, 550 tonnes of live oysters were imported, up 16% on 2018. That said, consumption still pales in comparison with France, where 1kg of oysters is swallowed per capita each year; in Switzerland it’s just 62g per head. The high prices are presumably a deterrent to even more market progress: as the NZZ External linkwroteExternal link last year, the CHF8 ($9.08) charged in Zurich for a single oyster would make any Parisian gulp.
Advent, Advent: what’s behind the door on December 11?
Sick of Love Actually and Miracle on 34th Street? We have an alternative. Each day in the run up to Christmas, our Advent calendar reveals a film from the archives of the Play Swiss streaming platform. The English-subtitled films range from documentaries about murderers to deep-dives into classic Swiss characteristics like cleanliness. What’s behind door number 11 today? Click here to find out.
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