Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Today the government met to discuss the safeguard clause and the electricity agreement – two of the most sensitive points in the latest negotiations with the European Union.
Enjoy the read.
At its meeting today, the government defined how the safeguard clause and the electricity agreement agreed in the negotiations with the EU would be implemented.
The government has determined which criteria it will have to take into account to activate the safeguard clause. These include immigration from the EU, the number of cross-border workers, the rise in unemployment and the rate of social assistance recipients. If these indicators reach a certain threshold, the government will have to examine the use of the clause and propose measures.
The Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons allows nationals of EU and EFTA member states to work, study or reside in Switzerland. Switzerland has negotiated a safeguard clause that allows it to temporarily restrict the free movement of people.
An agreement on electricity was also part of the package of agreements between Bern and Brussels. It provides for Switzerland to open its electricity market to all end consumers. Switzerland will also have the right to take measures to protect consumers and public services, which it intends to do.
The abolition of bonuses imposed by the finance ministry on the senior executives of Credit Suisse after the bank’s rescue in March 2023 was illegal, according to the Federal Administrative Court.
Two months after the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in March 2023, the finance ministry ordered that the outstanding bonuses of Credit Suisse managers be reduced or abolished.
Several of the thousand or so people affected by this decision appealed to the Federal Administrative Court. The court has now ruled in favour of 12 of them. Four other appeals are still pending.
In its ruling, the court found, among other things, that abolishing bonuses would be an inadmissible infringement of the guarantee of ownership. Variable pay is a benefit that is guaranteed by the employer under an employment contract.
Neither the finance ministry nor UBS were able to demonstrate that any of the 12 managers had taken excessive risks and were therefore responsible for Credit Suisse’s financial situation. The ruling is not yet final and may be appealed to the Federal Court, a possibility that the finance ministry says it is currently “analysing”.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the well-being of children has been declining in rich countries, according to a UNICEF study published today. Switzerland is no exception to this trend.
Ranked sixth out of 43 countries, Switzerland is experiencing a decline in life satisfaction in general. After the pandemic the percentage of 15-year-olds declaring themselves satisfied with their lives fell from 82% to 78%. The main cause of this is the quality of social relations. “In this area, Switzerland is lagging behind other European countries,” the study states.
The report also points the finger at trends in school education. The differences in maths results between pupils from high and low socio-economic backgrounds have widened considerably. In the countries studied, the gap has increased by an average of seven points, while in Switzerland it has widened by 23 points – the second-highest value, after Israel.
The UNICEF study, which compares data from 2018 and 2022, paints a picture of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and containment measures on children in 43 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union. The Netherlands, Denmark and France make up the top three. Chile comes last.
New rules on data surveillance proposed by the government would require encrypted messaging services (such as Threema or WhatsApp) to identify and retain data on their users. In an interview with Swiss public broadcaster RTS, Geneva-based Proton, the world leader in encrypted email, threatened to leave Switzerland.
For Andy Yen, founder of Proton, which claims to have 100 million users, this project would be detrimental to Switzerland. If the revision were accepted, “the law would become almost identical to the one in force in Russia today. […] We would be less confidential as a company in Switzerland than Google based in the United States”.
Proton is also a member of the EuroStack collective, a movement calling on Europe to reduce its dependence on technologies from the United States. It is supported by more than 200 companies, including Infomaniak in Switzerland.
There is also political interest. In March, parliamentarian Min Li Marti submitted a postulate asking the government to examine the possibility of Switzerland participating in the EuroStack initiative and to assess how it can contribute to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty. The government has not yet responded.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
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