Новости за 30.04.2024

The European Union’s (EU) New Pact on Migration and Asylum aims to curb irregular migration within Schengen, Justice Minister Beat Jans said in Ghent on Tuesday. The head of the justice ministry discussed implementation of the pact with his European counterparts on Monday and Tuesday in the Belgian city. From a Swiss perspective, the reform of EU migration and asylum policy is a step forward, Jans told Keystone-SDA news agency after the conference. He said that Switzerland would benefit greatly if the goals were achieved. Читать дальше...

A people’s initiative launched on Tuesday has called for the legalisation of growing and selling cannabis. The committee includes unnamed individuals from German-speaking Switzerland. The people’s initiative, "Cannabis legalisation: opportunities for the economy, health and equality", wants a new article on cannabis enshrined in the constitution. According to the text of the initiative published in the Swiss Federal Gazette, citizens should be allowed to grow and possess cannabis from the age of 18 for their personal use. Читать дальше...

Thanks to well-filled gas stores in Europe and increased availability of French nuclear power, the Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (ELCOM) is optimistic about the coming winter. However, uncertainties remain around the global gas market, as well as imports, so ELCOM cannot fully guarantee the security of Switzerland's electricity supply, it announced on Tuesday. The regulatory authority added that measures such as maintaining a winter reserve remained necessary and that reserve capacities of... Читать дальше...

A Swiss parliamentary committee has called for partially resuming support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – but has imposed conditions. The House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee is specifically calling on the Federal Council, the executive body, to provide UNRWA with an initial instalment. However, the relief organisation must be able to guarantee that Swiss money will only be used for emergency and humanitarian aid, Committee... Читать дальше...

Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has repeated calls for banks and their holdings in subsidiaries abroad to hold more equity. She argued that more equity capital would make it easier to wind up a bank in an emergency. The aim of the state is to limit risk. UBS’s balance sheet, for example, is double Switzerland's GDP, Keller-Sutter said on Monday on Swiss public television SRF. Additional capital would cost UBS an estimated CHF15-25 billion ($16-27 billion), according to SRF. Keller-Sutter did... Читать дальше...

Last year, the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) conducted 27 investigations and initiated 17 preliminary investigations. Its most recent decision was to set telecoms firm Swisscom a deadline and fine the company more than CHF18 million ($19.7 million) over a fibre-optic dispute. As a result, COMCO has ensured competition in the use of the Swisscom fibre-optic network for the next 50 years, it announced at its annual media conference on Tuesday. According to the competitions watchdog, Swisscom... Читать дальше...

Although Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) achieved higher revenue at the start of the year, it suffered a dip in profits. Operating profit fell to CHF30.7 million ($33.6 million) in the first three months of 2024, the Lufthansa subsidiary announced on Tuesday. In the previous year, it posted an operating profit of CHF78.4 million after returning to the black for the first time since the pandemic in the first half of 2022. However, the airline’s turnover increased by 8.1% to CHF1.2 billion. The slump in profits was due... Читать дальше...

In bilingual cities like Biel/Bienne or Fribourg, the proportion of French-speakers is growing at the expense of German. Why? Overall, the proportion of German speakers in Swiss cities has declined in recent decades, according to recently-published statistics. In 1970 some 64% of inhabitants spoke German as their main language; today this has fallen to around 60%. On the other hand, the proportion of French speakers in Swiss cities has slightly risen, from 19% in 1970 to around 23% today. In some... Читать дальше...

China’s rapidly ageing population and a growing middle class are opening up new opportunities for two Swiss medical companies who are targeting the country as their next growth market. Many countries around the world are facing the challenge of an ageing population, but none more so than China. By 2035 around a third of its citizens, some 400 million people, will be aged 60 and over, according to estimates published by the country’s National Health Commission (NHC), an increase of 100 million over... Читать дальше...