Ruth Dreifuss, former Swiss president, who grew up in the Secheron district in Geneva, attended a December 2008 presentation on the development of the international Geneva project, near the WTO.

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The proposed extension to the World Trade Organization’s building at Centre William Rappard will be decided this Sunday 27 September by the city of Geneva’s voters. The vote is a strictly municipal affair, and the outcome is not binding on the canton, which has the final say on city planning decisions. But this vote is being seen as a test of the city’s commitment to the concept of Genève internationale, host to the European headquarters of the UN and to more than 30 specialized UN organizations, as well as to a large number of non-governemental organizations (NGOs).

A strong “no” vote by the citizens of Geneva would seriously weaken that commitment. Pierre Vanek, leader of the project’s opponents, points out in an interview published in Le Temps that the canton can ignore the result of a refusal, but “people wouldn’t understand why it was going against a popular vote.”

The cantonal authorities approved the building extension because the WTO urgently needs the extra space.

Employees are currently spread around in offices in other buildings. The proposed extension will create space for 300 employees on top of what is now a parking lot, and the WTO will get a security perimeter that fits neatly into the surrounding Parc Barton. The extension’s opponents argue that the WTO could build someplace else, and fear that the security perimeter would block pedestrian access to the lake.

The project’s advocates are careful to say that none of the trees from the surrounding park will be damaged or cut down. They were not so open recently about the trees that shade the existing parking lot. In a recent mail shot, proponents had airbrushed those trees out of the picture of the site. In reality, the trees will be felled to make way for the building. But they are not part of the original park that was bequeathed to Geneva by Madame Barton on condition that its collection of trees not be cut down.

Scale model of iternational Geneva building projects in the Secheron district, presented by the city in December 2008.

The WTO extension project also fits into Geneva’s master plan for the Sécheron district. The new Maison de la Paix to be completed next door, in 2012, will house the Graduate Institute, as well as the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces.

Voters in Geneva, as elsewhere in Switzerland, also go to the polls Sunday 27 to decide on cantonal and federal issues.

Background: “Neuchatel architects named to build Geneva’s Maison de la Paix” 25 November 2008, GenevaLunch, “It’s official: The WTO to have a bigger home in Geneva“, 24 March 2009, GenevaLunch

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