Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
How should the old-age and survivors’ insurance (OASI) (known also as the AHV/AVS) be financed? This question has shaped Swiss politics ever since the first pillar of the country’s social security system was introduced in 1948.
With the introduction of the 13th monthly pension, the issue has become more pressing than ever. Today, the Swiss government presented its proposals for the next major reform package, AHV 2030. Let’s take a look at the key points.
Incentivising rather than forcing people to work beyond the age of 70: this is one of the key elements of the Swiss government’s plan to modernise the Federal Law on the old-age and survivors’ insurance (OASI) (known also as the AHV/AVS) and secure the financing of the first pillar of the Swiss social security system in the period 2030-2040.
With the AHV 2030 reform package, now open for consultation, the government wants to make early retirement less attractive and encourage people to remain in the workforce longer after the reference retirement age of 65. For example, the minimum income threshold above which AHV contributions are levied for people working beyond retirement age would rise from CHF16,800 to CHF22,680 ($21,255 to $28,695).
Currently, people who continue working and paying AHV contributions to improve their future pensions can only do so until the age of 70. The government now wants to abolish this limit.
According to the government, the AHV 2030 reform should generate around CHF600 million in additional annual revenue by 2040. At the same time, it is ruling out raising the retirement age further. However, much will depend on how parliament decides to finance the new 13th monthly pension payment.
Members of the European Parliament are closely following the debate surrounding the Swiss People’s Party initiative “No to 10 million” (also known as the Sustainability Initiative). According to several MEPs, a yes vote on June 14 could put relations between Bern and Brussels under strain.
“This initiative is a disguised attack on our relations,” French MEP Christophe Grudler told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS. The proposal would require the Swiss government to take measures to curb immigration if Switzerland’s population exceeds 9.5 million. Ultimately, this could force Bern to end the agreement on the free movement of persons – described by German MEP Norbert Lins as “a fundamental pillar of Europe”.
A yes vote would create “great uncertainty” and “unnecessary turbulence” around the ratification of the Bilaterals III package, said Croatian MEP Zeljana Zovko. Both Zovko and Lins stressed that the Bilaterals III agreements already contain safeguard clauses on immigration designed to take Swiss concerns into account.
According to Grudler, the impact of a yes vote would not be immediate. Problems would arise once the ten million population threshold approached and the Swiss government was obliged to act. The European Commission has so far declined to comment directly on the hypothetical scenario. In March, however, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “convinced that Switzerland, as a reliable partner, will fulfil its international commitments to the EU”.
Football in Switzerland causes around 40,000 injuries every year, leading to 680,000 lost working days and CHF200 million ($253 million) in insurance costs. Yet these apparently alarming figures also reflect a positive trend.
As Swiss public broadcaster SRF points out, the number of football injuries has remained stable since 2016, while the number of registered players has risen significantly – from 280,000 to 350,000 today. The number of women playing the sport has almost doubled. Proportionally, there are therefore fewer injuries than a decade ago.
According to Daniel Schaub, president of the Northwestern Switzerland Football Association, this improvement is linked to better training for coaches and staff, particularly regarding warm-ups, workload management and recovery. Campaigns promoting fair play have also played a role.
SRF also notes that, contrary to common stereotypes, football is not significantly more dangerous than many other sports. Skiing, for example, also causes a high number of injuries leading to long absences from work.
Switzerland continues to rank poorly when it comes to tobacco control. In the latest Tobacco Control Scale ranking, the country once again placed second-last among 37 European countries surveyed.
The 2025 report describes Switzerland as a stronghold of the international tobacco industry. It is one of the countries where the industry exerts the greatest influence on public health policy and remains the only country in the ranking not to have ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The report also highlights shortcomings in advertising restrictions, regulation of new tobacco products and prevention measures.
Price increases remain one of the most effective tools for reducing tobacco consumption. The countries performing best in the ranking are those that have significantly increased taxes on tobacco products. In Switzerland, however, tobacco taxation has remained unchanged since 2013, and cigarette prices are still considered “abnormally affordable” by European standards, as Le Temps points out.
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