Switzerland

Raiffeisen Switzerland will return to the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) at the end of August.

Thomas Müller, chair of Switzerland’s largest domestic-focused retail banking group, is nominated to take over the vice-presidency of the association. Raiffeisen left the umbrella organisation of Swiss banks more than two years’ ago.

Raiffeisen has now decided to rejoin the association at the end of August, Raiffeisen and the SBA announced on Tuesday. They want to tackle the upcoming challenges of the financial centre “as a united force” and actively help to shape the future of the financial centre.

Müller will be proposed for election to the board of directors at the association’s general assembly on September 14 and will take over the vice-presidency if elected.

Raiffeisen wants to “appropriately represent” the interests of its Swiss private and small business customers, the bank said. The Swiss financial centre aims to be united as it tackles future challenges, such as “requirements for systemically important banks”, “sustainable finance” or “combating cyber risks”.

The Raiffeisen Group and the SBA agree that a stable and robust financial system must be made up of banks with different business models and interests. Raiffeisen differentiates itself in the Swiss banking industry with its cooperative model. The SBA, meanwhile, welcomed the return of the banking group.

In November 2020, the withdrawal of the Raiffeisen Group from the SBA signified the smouldering dissatisfaction of domestic-focused banks that had built up for years. At that time, the banking group justified its exit by citing radical changes in the industry and differing interests of the various players in the Swiss financial centre.

A particular complaint was the excessive weighting of the international-oriented big banks and private banks within the SBA. Big banks and private banks are more interested in market access abroad and are “more willing to make sacrifices” than domestic banks, then Raiffeisen chair Guy Lachappelle told AWP at the time.

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has signed an agreement on the Swiss contribution from the second cohesion fund with Slovenia in Ljubljana.

He also assured the country of CHF200,000 ($226,000) to help victims of severe floods. Know-how is also to be exchanged in dealing with the disaster.

Cassis responded to a request from Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Tanja Fajon, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said Monday.

At the beginning of the month, torrential rains triggered a flood disaster of historic proportions in Slovenia. The government now estimates the damage at €5 billion. On Monday, heavy storms and heavy rains again hit the Adriatic coast and the west of the country.

The agreement relating to Switzerland's second contribution to selected European Union member states was signed by the Federal Council and Aleksander Jevšek, Slovenia's Minister for Cohesion and Regional Development. Switzerland will also support projects to increase energy efficiency and promote renewable energies with CHF16 million until 2029.

A third of Swiss ski resorts face a very high risk of snow shortage if the climate warms by two degrees Celsius. Across Europe, even more than half of all ski resorts would be affected. This is what researchers predict in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The study published on Monday by researchers from France and Austria examined the situation of 2,234 ski resorts in 28 European countries. Among them are 203 ski resorts in the Swiss Alps with a total area of 144 square kilometres.

The researchers defined a very high risk of snow shortage as a year with little snow every two years. At four degrees, according to the modelling, practically all ski areas would have a very high risk of insufficient snow. In Switzerland, 99% of ski areas would run out of snow without artificial snowmaking.

According to the analysis, if the temperature increase were limited to 1.5 degrees, 5% of ski resorts in the Swiss Alps would be at high risk. Across Europe, this would already be 32%. Artificial snowmaking

According to the analysis, artificial snowmaking could significantly reduce the risk of snow shortages. But artificial snowmaking also has its limits: With a snowmaking rate of 50%, around 27%of ski resorts across Europe would still be affected by a very high risk of snow shortage if the climate warmed by two degrees, and as much as 71% if the climate warmed by four degrees.

In the Swiss Alps, five (with two degrees of climate warming) and 38% (with four degrees of warming) of ski areas would be affected by a very high risk of snow shortage. In the Swiss Alpine region, 53% of all pistes can be covered with artificial snow, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office from 2021. A snowmaking rate of 50% is therefore close to reality. However, the production of artificial snow also increases the demand for water and electricity, as the researchers pointed out in the study.

While the authors emphasise that the snowmaking predictions are based on simplified assumptions and that their results should not be considered definitive, they do offer ways of assessing the impact of artificial snowmaking. Nevertheless, they offer opportunities to better consider the impact of climate change on the ski tourism industry.

Drinking water is polluted in parts of the Ticino cantonal capital Bellinzona, along with several other regions in the canton. Alertswiss warned on Monday morning of microbiological contamination in municipalities Moleno and Preonzo.

According to the notification from the federal warning service, tap water in the affected municipalities must not be used for drinking, cooking or washing until further notice.

Ticino has been hit by storms since Friday evening. After a violent thunderstorm with a hailstorm in the night to Saturday, the upper part of the canton in particular is now suffering from persistent precipitation after a long period of drought and heat. According to the weather service of Swiss public television, SRF Meteo, 300.5 millimetres of rain per square metre fell in the municipality of Biasca in canton Ticino within 48 hours over the weekend.

According to a media report, the Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) could still demand conditions from UBS during the takeover of Credit Suisse. The competition authorities are currently examining the takeover and conducting hearings.

This was confirmed by a Comco spokesman to the AWP news agency on Monday on request. The Handelzeitung newspaper had previously reported on it online. “We will send our statement to Finma at the end of September,” announced Comco director Patrik Ducrey. Ducrey did not want to say anything about whether and, if so, what conditions Comco will recommend to Finma.

“But it would be surprising if the cartel guardians would wave the monster takeover through without any suggestions for correction,” the article says. Another question is whether the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) takes up the concerns of Comco.

So far there have been no conditions despite it being a merger of giants. The Swiss competition authority had nothing to say about the emergency takeover of what was once the second-largest Swiss bank by the even larger UBS, which was announced in March and completed in June. In cases where financial stability is at stake, Finma can approve a merger without the intervention of Comco.

The Swiss Transport Safety Investigation Board (STSB) received a record number of 2,165 incidents in 2022. Some 1,828 reports related to air traffic and 337 to public transport.

For trains and ships, the number of reports was around the average of the last eight years, as stated in the STSB annual report published on Monday.

However, the very large number of reports from aviation does not mean that aviation has become less safe. More and more people are being flown, and events are becoming more frequent.

STSB received five reports of incidents from ocean shipping. No investigations were opened and no reports published.

Last year STSB opened 42 investigations and 24 detailed and 32 summary investigations were completed together with the publication of an interim report on an ongoing investigation. STSB issued 13 safety recommendations and seven safety notices.

The Swiss government has significantly brought forward the deadline for radon remediation in schools, which in many places it will be difficult to meet. But there are hardly any consequences for failing to meet the revised deadlines.

Danger comes from the ground. It’s invisible, you can’t smell it - but it’s poisonous. Radon: a natural, radioactive gas that in high concentrations causes lung cancer. In February, the government stipulated that school buildings in affected areas must be renovated much more rapidly to protect against radon.

“If people are exposed to radon gas for a long time, the risk of getting lung cancer increases,” says Martha Palacios from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). After smoking, radon is the second most common cause of lung cancer, according to the health ministry. Some 200 to 300 cancer deaths a year in Switzerland are attributed to radon.

The government therefore lowered the safe radon exposure limit ​​five years ago. If the limit is exceeded, the affected houses must be renovated within a timescale that varies according to the exact radon concentration.

At the beginning of the year, the government also tightened measures for school buildings even further. It is now assumed that any room in a school building could serve as a classroom. The stricter rules ​​have significantly brought forward deadlines for remedial action - in extreme cases, demanding action within a year.

The shortest possible deadlines are applied in a targeted campaign to meet child protection targets, explained the FOPH.

Around one in eight schools in Switzerland need renovations, with 21 schools needing immediate action.

Cantons are responsible for complying with the maximum radon limits and ​​have in many places adjusted their regulations. Radon measurements in schools have also been intensified in recent years. In canton Valais, which was badly affected, the local authorities intend to submit their own radon law to parliament in the near future.

And in the canton of Bern, an initiative has been pending since the weekend, asking how the canton intends to comply with the requirements for the renovation of schools after the deadlines have been reduced. In some cases, the radon values ​​measured in Bern are several times higher than the federal government allows.

What if the reduced deadlines are missed? “There is no specific consequences as long as the issue is approached in a sensible manner,” said Martha Palacios from FOPH.

She also admits that the federal government is not yet where it wants to be when it comes to radon remediation. Due to the lack of consequences, failure to meet shortened deadlines for radon remediation in school buildings will probably be met with a federal wagging finger.

Areas of Switzerland near to the Rhine between Diepoldsau, canton St Gallen and the mouth of Lake Constance were partially flooded early on Monday morning.

There has been no damage so far, a spokesperson for the International Rhine Regulation agency told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

“We expect the peak of the flood at 8 pm,” said Ralph Dietsche, media person for International Rhine Regulation.

The water level also rose upstream. At Domat-Ems, canton Graubünden, the level of the Rhine was at warning level 3 early Monday morning - denoting considerable danger - SRF Meteo announced.

According to SRF Meteo, the high snow line was problematic. Since it was mostly over 3,000 metres at the weekend, practically all the precipitation had drained away. This is particularly dangerous in late summer and early autumn.

It will continue to rain heavily on Monday. However, according to SRF Meteo, with rainfall temporarily shifting from Graubünden towards Valais and the Bernese Oberland. The lower snow line - at 2,000 and 2,500 meters – meant that not all the precipitation ran off.

The intensity of precipitation is also not comparable to the heavy rain in Ticino. More than 360 millimetres of rain fell in Biasca from Saturday noon to early Monday, SRF Meteo said.

During the course of Monday, a northerly warm wind will appear in Ticino and most of the rain will end by evening.

In western Ticino, in southern Valais and in Goms, the weather service expects another 80 millimetres of precipitation by midnight. In the north it will still rain on Tuesday where SRF Meteo expects 0 to 20 millimetres of precipitation.

As a freight carrier, the Swiss Federal Railways’ cargo division is responsible for the accident in the Gotthard base tunnel.

The law is clear on this point, according to the director of the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), Peter Füglistaler, in the SonntagsBlick on Sunday.

The Cargo division bears responsibility as a freight carrier, according to Füglistaler. The subsidiary is therefore "responsible for operational safety" and must take the necessary measures. It is the subsidiary that must check the wagons before departure and therefore assume responsibility for them. This would be the case even if it turned out that the wagon that derailed because of a broken wheel disc had come from Germany, explained the official.

He rejected the criticism that the FOT, as the supervisory authority, was too lax in its controls. He added that companies even find that there are too many checks. As things stand, it seems that a very rare and unavoidable accident has occurred: a broken wheel disc.

Faced with an anticipated influx of asylum seekers into Switzerland this autumn, Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider is opposed to the federal government managing the entire process. The current "patchwork of responsibilities" offers "extremely valuable" solutions.

"We can't centralise decisions and pool costs," said the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police in an interview published in Le Matin Dimanche on Sunday. She said she is sensitive to the reality of the cantons.

However, the Social Democrat minister points out that "more creative political tools" could be envisaged in times of pressure. "The Covid [-19] crisis, the energy crisis and the climate crisis all call into question the system".

The incoming president of the Swiss Water Management Association (SWMA) is in favour of full liberalisation of the Swiss electricity market. She also maintains that an electricity mix without nuclear power is no longer possible.

"My ideal would be a good electricity mix without nuclear power, but I don't really believe in that any more," said Susanne Vincenz-Stauffacher in an interview published on Sunday by the NZZ am Sonntag. The parliamentarian is therefore not closing the door on new nuclear power stations, but only wants "new generation" ones.

However, she continues to believe in the development of hydroelectric power. "The first step is to increase the height of existing dams. To do this, we need to reach an agreement with the environmental organisations so that we don't hold each other back".

The Swiss company Ruag wanted to sell the tanks to Germany, which intended to send them to Ukraine. But according to an investigation by the Tages-Anzeiger published on Saturday, some of these tanks were already sold four years ago for a derisory price.

In 2019, Ruag sold 25 Leopard 1 tanks to a Bavarian company, Global Logistics Support GmbH (GLS). The company only paid around CHF 12,500 ($14,133) for these 25 tanks, a unit price of CHF 500.

It was precisely these tanks that the government-owned armaments group wanted, until recently, to send indirectly to Ukraine by selling them to another German company, Rheinmetall, which the Swiss Federal Council refused two months ago.

The Swiss Air Force is using sustainable fuel for the first time on a flight during the Patrouille Suisse air shows at the Zurich Airport festival. 10% of this fuel will be mixed with the fossil paraffin, the army announced on Friday.

In the past months, extensive investigations and tests have been carried out, the statement continued. In August, the first large delivery of sustainable fuel arrived in Switzerland.

By using sustainable fuel, the Swiss armed forces want to reduce CO2 emissions. In the future, sustainable fuel will be used in all aircraft of the Swiss Air Force.

From 2023 to 2027, the admixture ratio will be between 1% and 2%. The plan is to increase the blending ratio to around 10% between 2028 and 2030.

The use of sustainable fuel up to a blending ratio of 50% does not require any technical adjustments to the air force's aircraft or refuelling facilities. Compared to fossil fuel, sustainable fuel contains less sulphur, fewer aromatic hydrocarbons and more than 80% of fossil CO2 emissions can be avoided.

With an admixture of 10%, the Air Force could thus reduce its CO2 emissions by about 8%. The procured, sustainable fuel is produced in a certified process from organic waste such as used cooking oil and animal fats.

The Patrouille Suisse airshows will take between September 1 to 3. Zurich Airport celebrates its 75th anniversary on these dates.

The Swiss Air Force is using sustainable fuel for the first time on a flight during the Patrouille Suisse air shows at the Zurich Airport festival. 10% of this fuel will be mixed with the fossil paraffin, the army announced on Friday.

In the past months, extensive investigations and tests have been carried out, the statement continued. In August, the first large delivery of sustainable fuel arrived in Switzerland.

By using sustainable fuel, the Swiss armed forces want to reduce CO2 emissions. In the future, sustainable fuel will be used in all aircraft of the Swiss Air Force.

From 2023 to 2027, the admixture ratio will be between 1% and 2%. The plan is to increase the blending ratio to around 10% between 2028 and 2030.

The use of sustainable fuel up to a blending ratio of 50% does not require any technical adjustments to the air force's aircraft or refuelling facilities. Compared to fossil fuel, sustainable fuel contains less sulphur, fewer aromatic hydrocarbons and more than 80% of fossil CO2 emissions can be avoided.

With an admixture of 10%, the Air Force could thus reduce its CO2 emissions by about 8%. The procured, sustainable fuel is produced in a certified process from organic waste such as used cooking oil and animal fats.

The Patrouille Suisse airshows will take between September 1 to 3. Zurich Airport celebrates its 75th anniversary on these dates.

The Criminal Court in Geneva sentenced the former head of security at Geneva airport to three years in prison for passive bribery, six months of which were unconditional on Friday. The man had favoured a company in exchange for money so that it received orders from the airport.

The former executive, who admitted to the offences, appeared in court under a simplified procedure. He was found guilty of passive bribery, unfaithful business management, breach of official secrecy, incitement to forgery of documents and aiding and abetting unemployment insurance fraud.

In 2012, the ex-head of security had entered into "a corruption pact" with the head of a company in order to award the company several service contracts from Geneva Airport. The ex-head of security was supposed to influence the procedure for awarding the contracts so that the airport would select the company in question. Among other things, the company received contracts for training in the area of airport security.

In return, the head of the company paid him "an undue advantage" equivalent to half of the company's profits. Between 2012 and 2019, the former head of security had more than CHF450,000 ($507,000) paid out to various accounts in this way.

The man, who was dismissed in 2019 after the accusations came to light, stood trial alongside the head of the company. This man, who had also admitted to the acts, was found guilty of active bribery, forgery of documents and aiding and abetting unemployment insurance fraud. He was sentenced to a conditional prison term of two years.

The two men must also pay Geneva Airport more than CHF450,000 to make good the damage and CHF70,000 for the costs of the proceedings.

The BA.2.86 variant of the Covid-19 is being closely monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO) after having been detected in wastewater in Switzerland. To date, around ten cases have been observed in five countries.

This variant has more than 30 mutations. For this reason, a week ago the WHO has decided to include it among the variants to be monitored, along with six other variants.

But it is not considered to be a variant of interest or concern. "Everything will depend on circulation" in a particular country, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told the press on Friday.

Cases have been identified in Denmark, the United States, Israel, Great Britain and South Africa. The variant has also been "detected in wastewater in Switzerland and Thailand", she added.

Twenty tonnes of uranium hexafluoride belonging to a bankrupt Swiss company in Olten in central Switzerland have been sold at auction for CHF 17 million ($19.2 million).

The name of the sole bidder and new owner of the radioactive gas was not disclosed. The item in question is 20.8 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride stored in 14 cylinders on the site of the Tricastin nuclear power plant in France, near Avignon, the bankruptcy office for the canton of Solothurn said on Friday.

Uranium hexafluoride is a highly volatile, toxic, radioactive and corrosive compound. It is used in the uranium enrichment process. This gas is part of the bankruptcy estate of the Olten-based trading company Nuexco Exchange. The company was dissolved in 1996.

The Lucerne Public Prosecutor's Office will hand over 3.7 kilos of gold to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Despite a thorough investigation, it has not been possible to determine who owned the 120 bars of gold found in October 2019 on a train from St. Gallen to Lucerne, the Lucerne public prosecutor's office said on Friday. The gold is worth around CHF 200,000 ($226,000).

The ingots were in a white package bearing the words "IKRK Wertsendung" ("ICRC valuable consignment"). The Public Prosecutor's Office assumes that the unidentified owner intended the gold for the ICRC.

The Italian-speaking canton of Ticino experienced storms with heavy hail on Friday evening. Some of the hailstones had a diameter of up to 4 centimeters.

The region around Locarno was particularly affected. Some cars were damaged and a few people received minor injuries. However, nobody had to be taken to the hospital.

Overall, a lot of rain fell in Ticino and the Engadine amounting over 80 millimeters. This, according to the public broadcaster's weather service SRF Meteo, came in two waves: one on Friday evening – partly with hailstorms in the Onsernone valley, a second in the later half of the night with strong thunderstorms and gusts of wind of 80 kilometers per hour in the Upper Engadine.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has accused two Swiss men of carrying out a bomb attack in Basel last year. They also allegedly tried to buy explosives in Stuttgart, Germany.

The aim of the youths, aged 25 and 27, was to intimidate wealthy people, the OAG told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Friday evening, without giving further details, confirming a report by the public broadcaster SRF. No one was injured in the explosion, but material damage amounted to CHF 170,000 ($192,000).

According to the OAG, the two suspects, from cantons Basel City and Basel Country, first carried out an explosive attack on a building in the Bruderholz district of Basel on March 30, 2022. They then travelled to Stuttgart on June 20, 2022 to buy four 500-gram packs of plastic explosives for €2,000 but were intercepted by the German police.

A tip-off put the police on their trail. They then traced a man on DarkNet who said he wanted to buy explosives. The two men were remanded in custody and extradited to Switzerland at the request of the OAG.

The thermometer in Geneva read 38 °C (100.4 °F) at noon on Thursday. According to the private weather service Meteonews, this is the highest temperature recorded so far this year in Switzerland

"The end of the line has not yet been reached," Meteonews wrote in a statement on the short message service X (formerly Twitter). The service therefore expects it to get even hotter on Thursday.

The archives shows that in 2015, the heat record for the northern side of the Alps in Switzerland was registered in Geneva. At that time, the thermometer in the city read 39.7°C.

According to Meteonews, the highest temperature so far this year was measured in the village of Chur, in canton Graubünden on July 11. There, 37.6°C were recorded on that day.

Last year, more than 13,000 animals were taken in by Swiss animal shelters: mainly cats, rodents and dogs. Compared to the previous year, the number decreased slightly.

Of the animals taken in, just under 9,000 could be placed with new owners, as the Swiss Animal Protection (STS) announced on Thursday. The STS animal protection statistics include the shelters and rescue centres of 66 STS sections throughout Switzerland. A total of 13,032 animals were taken in last year - in 2021, there were around five hundred more.

More than half of the animals are cats. A good 300 of them were officially confiscated. Rodents and rabbits, as well as dogs, follow in second and third place, with around 2,000 animals taken in each. Rodents include mice, rats, hamsters and guinea pigs. The number of exotic animals, such as reptiles and turtles, has increased. However, with a few hundred animals each, they make up a comparatively small group.

From the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022 until the end of July 2023, the Swiss Confederation has supported the population affected by the war in Ukraine with a total of CHF2.03 billion ($2.30 billion). This was announced by the Federal Council on Thursday.

CHF1.68 billion - over four-fifths of the expenditure - was used by the Confederation mainly for the reception and support of persons with protection status S in Switzerland, as the Federal Council wrote in its response to a parliamentary motion by parliamentary Lorenzo Quadri. The expenditure also included federal support to the cantons for social assistance and various cantonal support programmes.

CHF295 million, or 14% of the expenditure, was used for humanitarian aid and development and economic cooperation measures. These included, for example, winter aid, the delivery of over 1,200 tonnes of relief supplies, support for health systems, decentralisation and digitalisation, vocational training and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or strengthening the agricultural sector.

Some projects and multilateral funds are set up across countries, according to the Federal Council. For example, around CHF45 million of the expenditure benefited the war-affected population in countries in the region, especially in Moldova.

CHF32 million - the equivalent of 2% of the expenditure - came from the defence ministry and consisted mainly of material donations that were delivered to Ukraine, as the Federal Council wrote. These included, for example, fire-fighting vehicles, health materials and winter clothing.

Other federal agencies contributed around CHF25 million to support the affected population, for example by protecting cultural assets, supporting Ukrainian researchers in Switzerland or organising the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the city of Lugano, in canton Ticino.

Finally, the Confederation spent around CHF10 million on projects in Ukraine's neighbouring countries, with which international organisations implemented projects in the areas of integration, infrastructure, protection and labour market integration.

Some 8,224 swimmers took part in an annual lake crossing in Zurich on Wednesday afternoon. Conditions were ideal, with a water temperature of 27°C.

The 33rd crossing of Lake Zurich was uneventful, organizers said. Around 400 people provided security, including 100 lifeguards. Boats were stationed every 50 to 70 meters and those who failed to complete the course were brought safely ashore.

The first participants set off at 2:30pm on the 1,500-meter course between Mythenquai and Tiefenbrunnen. The last ones set off around 6pm.

The event is not timed. Crossing the lake is not a competition and even fast swimmers are asked to watch out for slower ones. Swimmers aged 12 and over can take part. Teenagers must be accompanied. A total of 110 young people participated.

After a good first half of the year, the local tourism industry is already sounding the alarm: Swiss as well as guests from nearby countries have reacted to the bad weather in July and are increasingly travelling abroad.

"The time of Swiss guest records in the pandemic is definitely over," Switzerland Tourism Director Martin Nydegger told the media in Zurich on Thursday. The share of Swiss guests is decreasing again, competition from the south and the sea is back and in demand, he said. "And the recovery from abroad, from Europe and overseas, continues to take a lot of time."

Even though the number of guests from distant markets is steadily increasing here, we are not yet able to compensate with this guest segment," said Monika König, Head of Marketing & Communication, Aletsch Arena, working on behalf of many mountain resorts. Many guests from abroad are still missing.

In the first half of the year, the number of overnight stays rose by 13.8% to 19.5 million compared to the previous year. So far, everything points to more guests staying in Swiss hotels this year than ever before. Even when comparing to the Swiss record and also 2019, pre-Covid-19 year, after six months there have been 3.6% more overnight stays.

However, foreign tourists are not yet back to the same extent as prior to the pandemic: foreign guests accounted for 9.4 million overnight stays in the first half of the year. Overseas tourists in particular are still lagging behind with a drop of 10%.