Swiss parliament edges closer towards deciding foreign aid cuts
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Swiss parliament edges closer towards deciding foreign aid cuts
The House of Representatives wants foreign aid to be cut by CHF170 million ($192 million) next year. However, there is still a large divide to bridge with the Senate.
In the first round of discussions on the 2025 federal budget, parliament was unable to agree on how much development and foreign aid should be cut. The Senate wants to reduce spending by a total of CHF30 million while the House of Representatives agreed on a more ambitious figure of CHF250 million last week.
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On Wednesday, the House settled on a slightly lower budget cut of CHF170 million francs. This means CHF135 million less for bilateral development cooperation, CHF10 million less in contributions to multilateral organisations and CHF25 million less for economic cooperation at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).
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Proposed Swiss cuts to international aid mean less for the needy
On Thursday, the Senate will once again discuss the scale of budget cuts.
Adapted from German by DeepL/ac
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