Muehleberg nuclear power plant, peaceful protestors in 2011 (photo:©2011 Herbi Ditl on flickr)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A European Union team of specialists has given the all-clear to Switzerland’s nuclear reactors for resistance, reviewing them on 37 points established in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011, but he Swiss government says it wants further reviews on 8 additional points.
The IFSN (Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety) says it will not wait for the EU report to be concluded, but it including several points in a review the Swiss body wants to complete by June 2012. Key among them: knowing more precisely the core’s seismic resistance for each reactor. The IFSN in particular notes that the Wohlensee dam’s ability to withstand the kind of major earthquake that occurs every 10,000 years. It invited the Muehleberg nuclear centre in April to show proof of this by 30 November 2011, but it has not yet provided this and the IFSN is now demanding that the information be provided by 31 January 2012, as well as information on the seismic resistant of the emergency stoppage system.
The European Union’s list of safety checks focuses on earthquakes, floods, extreme meteorological conditions, electrical failure and crisis management. Switzerland is calling for further reviews to ensure the safety of rivers and streams below all the dams linked to nuclear plants
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Financial Times wondered Sunday if the UK will drop out of the European Union, but most media weren’t willing to take it quite that far. Europe was nevertheless adjusting this weekend to a new set of relations after Britain vetoed a new EU treaty that would bind the members more closely financially. The UK was the only one of the 27 member countries to do so. UK Prime Minister David Cameron goes before parliament Monday 12 December to explain why he vetoed the treaty. He said after last week’s vote that it left the financial services industry unprotected.
Ireland has said it will start bilateral talks with London soon, with the Irish Times reporting that “The Government intends to launch an intensive diplomatic engagement with Britain to ensure London is not left isolated as a result of its refusal to agree strict new fiscal rules in the European Union.”
Links to other sites: Guardian, Irish Times, Le Monde interview with Nicolas Sarkozy (Fr), Telegraph
Switzerland: equal work, but not equal pay
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government 5-6 December took part in European Union best practice discussions in Berlin covering how to eliminate salary differences between men and women.
It was invited to join the discussions, hosted by Germany, and present its Logib software, a self-check software programme that the Swiss Confederation uses and which can be used easily, internally, by companies of at least 50 employees.
Germany and Luxembourg are using the software, as are companies in Switzerland that have government contracts.
Swiss companies have shown less enthusiasm, the federal government noted in mid-November, with only 20 companies signing up for a salary review programme.
Recent figures published by the Swiss Justice and Police Department show that men continue to earn nearly 20 percent more than women for equal work.
Photo: Shangrila Farms, Yunnan Province, China
BERN, SWITZERLAND – “Switzerland’s free trade agreement negotiations with China are in a rather early stage but they are well underway” following the third round of talks between the two countries, Swiss Ambassador and Delegate for Trade Agreements Christian Etter has told GenevaLunch.
Switzerland, which has a trade surplus with China despite the former’s small size, has taken a European lead in working out a free trade agreement (FTA) with Asia’s giant economy since the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding 28 January 2011, says Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey.
“It shows we’re not afraid,” she said, smiling, at a press conference in Geneva 28 November. She was treating it lightly, but Switzerland is keen to keep the negotiations moving, particularly in the wake of a slowdown in negotiations between China and Iceland and China and Norway.
Both sides have said they would like the talks to move swiftly.
EU’s Almunia says stable trade framework is the way forward
The comments come as the European Union’s anti-trust boss called for less bickering and a better trade framework between the EU and China, at the EU-China Forum held in Brussels this week, organized by the Friends of Europe. Joaquın Almunia is quoted by Dow-Jones 29 November as saying that “everything linked with intellectual property rights, innovation, know-how, is not well-solved in our relations, we are discussing with our Chinese partners but I don’t find we have a stable framework to benefit from both sides of our common understanding.” He added that “playing this same kind of game means these pressures, these intensities will increase.”
Swiss-China trade picks up while Swiss-EU trade slows
Switzerland is China’s ninth largest trading partner in Europe, with the smaller country having a trade surplus for 2011 of CHF2.13 billion by the end of October. China is Switzerland’s largest trading partner in Asia. During the first 10 months of the year Switzerland’s exports to China grew by 26.2 percent, while imports from China slipped by 3.3 percent.
China is Europe’s largest trading partner and its trade surplus with Europe is €160-€180 billion in 2011, according to the Wall St Journal.
Trade has been stagnant between the EU and Switzerland during the first 10 months of the year, with exports to the EU down 0.5 percent and imports up 3.1 percent.
Iceland was the first European country to start FTA negotiations with China but its talks have cooled down, with Iceland’s application to join the European Union. Negotiations began formally in July 2010; EU membership would exclude implementing a separate FTA with China.
And talks with Norway have slowed down since China expressed its displeasure over the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Third round of negotiations covered hefty list of topics
The latest round of talks in the free trade negotiations between Switzerland and China took place in Montreux 8-10 November. The talks were launched in Davos in January, with talks held once in Bern and once in Beijing.
The two teams in Montreux held expert level discussions and exchanged information on respective regulatory systems and FTA-practices covering several areas: trade in goods, trade in services, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), trade remedies, intellectual property rights, competition and dispute settlement.
The heads of of the two delegations and experts discussed investment promotion, cooperation on trade and sustainable development, and cooperation on government procurement, and agreed on follow-up work in all areas.
The fourth round of negotiations are expected to take place in China in early 2012.
Background
- World Trade Organization, most recent trade policy review for China, June 2010
- EU / China Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nineteen of the 22 members of the Arab League voted Sunday 27 November for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, effective immediately. The sanctions include travel bans, freezing government assets and end to Arab investments and dealings with Syria’s central bank.
The sanctions come as the number of deaths in Syria is widely reported to have topped 3,500 during more than eight months of fighting. The US and the European Union (and Switzerland) already have sanctions in place.
Reuters notes that “the Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria’s crackdown and by the failure by Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan. The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.”
The League is calling on the United Nations to adopt similar sanctions.
But the New York Times reported Sunday that the impact of the sanctions could be limited: ”
“Analysts said they expected the impact of the sanctions to be limited, in large part because Syria’s largest trading partners will not participate. Economists estimate that about 50 percent of Syrian trade is with the Arab world, but the largest chunk of that is with its immediate neighbors, including Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
“Iraq abstained and Lebanon ‘disassociated’ itself from the vote, Mr. Jassem said. Both countries said they would not enforce the sanctions, and Jordan has issued mixed signals.”
China’s Xinhua news agency cites Syrian state news reports that Syrians took to the streets in protest after the news of the sanctions was announced.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss consumers are gloomy about the economy, with confidence falling over jobs and the economy in general, to -24 from July’s -17. The figures show lower consumer sentiment than in the EU, where surveys registered -20.2 in October, although the cutoff date for surveys, which are done monthly, is slightly earlier than Switzerland’s.
Somewhat surprisingly, the federal government’s quarterly consumer sentiment survey shows that, despite falling confidence overall, Swiss consumers remain positive about their own financial situations and about their future savings, with no change from their sentiments in July’s survey.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Greece is the latest country to consider a bilateral tax agreement with Switzerland, a move that will not please everyone in the European Community. Bern announced Thursday afternoon that “State Secretary Michael Ambühl and Ilias Plaskovitis, the general secretary in the Greek Ministry of Finance, conducted talks on a possible tax agreement between Switzerland and Greece. Both parties discussed the possibility of a tax agreement like the ones Switzerland signed a few weeks ago with Germany and the United Kingdom.”
Bern notes that “the aim is to regularize the assets held by Greek taxpayers in Swiss bank accounts in the past as well as to introduce a tax at source on future investment income. Switzerland would forward the tax revenue to the Greek authorities on an anonymous basis. In addition, mutual market access for financial services should be improved.”
The two governments will now need to decide if they are opening negotiations. But Greece, with its just-announced EU bailout, could be under pressure from the EU, which is not entirely happy with Switzerland’s agreements with individual EU countries, according to PwC’s bimonthly “EU Tax Newsletter” in September. “It is widely believed in Brussels that the European Commission’s President Barroso and the EU’s Tax Commissioner Semeta have missed out on an opportunity to make the case for European integration / the “Community” method and publicly oppose the bilateral agreements by Germany and the UK, as they objectively undermine the EU’s position vis-à-vis Switzerland regarding tax fraud and tax avoidance and harmful tax competition (EU-wide Code of Conduct on Business Taxation), and talks with the US regarding Fatca [foreign ], wrote Bob van der Made, PwC Netherlands.
European leaders meet in Brussels to save Greece and the euro - Photo: The Council of the European Union
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The leaders of the 17 eurozone countries reached an agreement in the early hours of Thursday 27 October to deal with the growing economic crisis.
Stock markets are being watched closely by analysts of the situation, for market reactions; in early trading in Europe and in Asia markets were moving up, and by 09:00 Swiss time the euro was trading $1.40 higher.
Three key ingredients of the deal are:
- write off half of Greece’s sovereign debt
- ensure that Europe’s banks are better capitalized to be able to face any future government loan defaults
- raise the eurozone’s bailout fund to $1.4 trillion.
Additionally, governance of the eurozone will be tightened and the role of the European Central Bank is under review.
Further details of the agreement, reached after difficult negotiations, will be hammered out later.
Le Monde in France refers to the “forceps” deal which will increase social costs for its employers. Banks will be recapitalized to the tune of $106 billion, amid fears voiced by banks that they will be less competitive as a result.
The news was greeted in Switzerland mainly with relief that the ministerial meeting which closed at 04:00 had resulted in an agreement after weeks of talks, and with hopes that calming the crisis will at the least ease pressure on the over-valued Swiss franc. TSR public television refers to it as a last-chance summit.
Links to other sites: BBC, Financial Times, Le Monde (Fr)
Swiss exports, imports (Source: Swiss Statistical Office, 20.10.11)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss exports and imports continued to expand in the first nine months of 2011, but with the rate of growth slowing down steadily and “losing strength” and reflecting the state of the world economy, the Swiss Statistical Office said Thursday morning in a press release.
Exports grew by 2.4 percent from January to September, CHF147 billion, with growth in the first two quarters but a decline in the third.
The growth was achieved despite falling prices, down 10.7 percent in real terms, although without including pharmaceuticals, prices fell by 7 percent.
Imports rose in the first nine months but by a weak 1 percent.
Switzerland showed a positive trade balance from January to September of CHF16.7b, a one-year 14.7 percent increase. A CHF17b surplus with Asia offset the CHF16.3b deficit with the European Union.
A bright spot: orders from Italy, France and Germany rose by 4 percent in September.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Former Unkrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymochenko was handed a seven-year prison sentence Tuesday 11 October, found guilty of criminally abusing her power, in particular of losing large amounts of money in a natural gas deal with Russia. Tymochenko was one of the heroes of the Orange Revolution in 2004 who fought the regime of Victor Yanukovych, widely considered to be tainted by fraud. Tymochenko then lost the presidency in a close race in 2010, to Yanukovych, in a climate coloured by economic discontent.
The judge also ordered her to back the millions lost by the state in the gas deal, and told her she cannot run for political office for three years after completing her prison term.
The trial has been heavily criticized as politically motivated in the West, with Catherine Ashton, European Union foreign minister warning Kiev within two hours of the verdict of “profound implications” for Ukraine and its integration into the EU, if the sentence is upheld.
Parliament in Bern: Steady influx of foreigners could have impact on Swiss parliamentary elections 23 October
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The number of foreigners from European Union (EU) countries grew by 4 percent between the end of August 2010 and 2011, while other foreigners increased by 0.8 percent.
Foreigners now make up 22.3 percent of the Swiss population, new figures released 10 October by the Swiss Statistical Office show.
The new figure is one of the highest in Europe and is likely to play a role in parliamentary elections 23 October, with the right-wing UDC’s campaign “Stop massive immigration” running parallel to the elections. The issue of how to integrate foreigners and limit the number of immigrants is cropping up in other countries: David Cameron, UK prime minister, announced stiffer rules Monday 10 October, reviving the polemic in Britain.
The total number of resident foreigners in Switzerland 31 August was 1,751,301, with 1.3 million of those from the EU.
The greatest increases came from: Kosovo (+17,864), Germany (+14,395), Portugal (+9,816), France (+4,388) and Great Britain (+2m,365). The Kosovo jump is deceptive, however, since most of these were already in Switzerland but they became Kosovar citizens after the country became independent in February 2008. The shift is visible when the countries were numbers have fallen are counted: Serbia (-19,910), Bosnia-Herzegovinia (-1,079), Croatia (-977), Sri Lanka (-944) and Turkey (-264).
Italians remain the largest group of foreigners resident in Switzerland, followed closely by Germans and Portuguese.
NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Swiss unemployment for the second quarter of 2011 fell to 3.6 percent from 4.2 percent in Q2 2010, using the ILO (International Labour Organization) definition, the Swiss government said 29 September. The number of employed persons rose by 2.6 during the same period.
The figures compare to the EU’s unemployment rate, which fell slightly from 9.6% to 9.4%.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss officials, like those in the European Union, say they must wait for a new United Nations resolution before allowing financial institutions to release frozen assets of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and his entourage, but several countries are meeting in Doha today, 24 August, to discuss an emergency request for $2.5 from Libya’s National Transitional Council.
The UN Security Council’s resolution in early 2011 to block Qaddafi assets led to an estimated $100 billion being frozen, in several countries, according to the Financial Times, which lists the US as the largest holder, at $37b, and the US $12, with Germany holding another $7.3b.
The exact amount frozen in Switzerland has not been confirmed by the Swiss government, but it is likely to be a fraction of the total blocked, possibly less than CHF1 billion, according to earlier figures released by the government. Libya withdrew much of the money it had in Swiss banks and other financial institutions in 2008 after Hannibal Qaddafi, the younger son of Muammar, was arrested at a Geneva hotel for attacking one of his employees.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US will not intervene militarily and Europe is pushing for a UN condemnation of the Syrian government’s crackdown on its citizens, now in its third day, which included the deaths of a reported 100 people in the city of Hama Sunday 31 July alone. Chinese news agency Xinhua quotes Syrian state media as saying the army has not entered Hama while negotiations continue, and that state media show gunmen killing Syrian security forces.
A late-night session of the UN Security Council in New York Monday 1 August failed to bring about an agreement on condemning the violence, but some diplomats say progress is being made, although China and Russia still fear that a condemnation could lead to military intervention.
Cucumbers: when will we learn to love them again?
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – “It’s the bean sprouts”, the source of the E. coli outbreak in Germany, Reinhard Burger, Germany’s head of infectious diseases programme, said Friday morning 10 June. The actual sprouts that are behind what the WHO labels the “the unusual enteroaggregative verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (EAggEC VTEC) O104:H4 bacterium” have not yet been pinpointed.
Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and Food Safety and the Robert Koch-Institute will publish a joint press release Friday.
The number of new infections has been falling in recent days, but E.coli itself has killed 6 people in Germany and the HUS complication has killed 26, with an additional death in Sweden, according to WHO worldwide figures for the outbreak. In total, 2,909 people have been infected.
The European Union said Tuesday it would set aside €210 million for farmers touched by the outbreak, but a European farmers organization, Colos, says the losses are reaching €400m a week. Spanish farmers, the largest fruit and vegetable producers in Europe, calculate they have lost €200m in business since the start of the outbreak at the end of April, and German farmers say they have lost €60m, according to news agency AFP/TSR (Fr).
Muehleberg peaceful anti-nuclear protest in May (©2011 Herbi Ditl, flickr.com/photos/herbivore)
Update 2 19:20 BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss ruling seven-member Federal Council Wednesday afternoon voted to end the country’s nuclear energy programme by 2034. The decision requires approval by Parliament.
Five existing nuclear power stations will be closed as their licenses, which will not be renewed, come to an end.
Europe finalizes nuclear station “stress tests”
The European Union, also Wednesday afternoon, put the finishing touches on its stress tests programme for nuclear facilities, to test their ability to withstand terrorist attacks and natural disasters. “The tests, which follow two months of wrangling, will also address resilience to more common threats such as forest fires, transport accidents and the loss of electrical power supplies,” reports The Guardian in the UK. Tests must begin by 1 June.
Switzerland’s Federal Council, in setting out its new 2050 energy strategy, will look to guarantee that the country’s energy needs are met through a combination of:
- greater economies through more efficient use of energy supplies
- developing hydraulic power and renewable energy supplies
- as needed, producing combustible gas for electricity
- imports.
The government has noted the urgent need to rapidly develop electricity networks and to increase energy research.
The WWF promptly issued a statement congratulating the government on its decision but noting that the parliament could take this a step further when it votes 8 June, in particular in setting an earlier date of 2029 to end the nuclear programme, pointing out that several environmental groups recommended this to the government in early May, outlining their reasons.
The council said Wednesday afternoon in its statement that it sees no reason to advance the date, and that recent checks on the safety of the plants shows they are very secure. The plants have a 50 year life and will come to the end of their terms in 2019, for Beznau, 2022 for Beznau II and Mueleberg , 2029 for Goesgen and 2034 for Leibstadt.
Switzerland is happy to stay out of the EU
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey told a group of foreign journalists 20 May that the Swiss do not want to join the European Union anytime soon. It is now apparent that she was not expressing a personal opinion, but that she was likely aware of the contents of a new report that shows only 19 percent would consider it today and only 37 percent favour closer ties to the EU.
The 2011 report by the Security Academy and Center for Security Studies at the ETH in Zurich, published 24 May, notes in its executive summary that:
“Since the publication of the first ‘Security Survey’ [ed. note: 1993, the year after Switzerland voted against joining the EU], the Swiss have never been as skeptical about the EU as they are this year. Within a year, support for closer relations with the EU or a bid for EU membership has strongly declined by 13 and 12 percentage points respectively. Meanwhile, Switzerland’s economic and political independence has never been more vehemently demanded than this year. Cooperation with the UN is supported by a constant two-thirds majority. International cooperation without institutional commitments compromising Switzerland’s sovereignty is still endorsed by a majority, although support for such a cooperation has slightly decreased.”
94% of Swiss support neutrality
Armed neutrality has backing from the Swiss, but ambivalence about best method
The annual report looks at Swiss attitudes towards political and military autonomy. The solid support by the Swiss for maintaining the country’s neutrality was furthered strengthened in 2011, with 94 percent of the population supporting it. The increase in optimism about Switzerland’s position in the world was sharp, up 15 percent. At the same time, pessimism about the global political situation also increased, 11 percent.
The Swiss are much more ambivalent about the role of the Swiss Army in maintaining neutrality, however, with the population divided over continuing with a citizen militia or scrapping it for a volunteer army, and yet the army retains high marks: “The Swiss consider the armed forces to be necessary and important, the population’s demands for cost cuts have further decreased, the social prestige of a militia career is still high.”
Economy comes out the winner
Former ICRC head Cornelio Sommaruga (1987-99) with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, guests of the Foreign Press Association in Geneva (photo: ©2011 Song Bin)
Update 24 May GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The caution that often typifies Swiss politicians’ speech disappeared for a moment Friday night when Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, asked if Switzerland would like to become a member of the European Union, said bluntly and for the first time, according to local journalists, “I have to say no; the majority is not in favour of it.”
The Swiss voted against joining the EU in 1992, but the two have grown closer in the past 20 years, mainly through a web of more than 120 bilateral agreements.
Ed.note: The Swiss “Security report 2011″ published 24 May confirms the president’s point, showing only 19 percent of Swiss backed the idea of joining the EU, in 2011.
EU, Swiss grow closer, want simpler system for agreements, but Swiss will remain outside group
She was fielding questions 20 May during the annual presidential dinner hosted in Geneva by the Foreign Press Association. She had touched on the growing ties between Switzerland and the EU when the question came up.
“Issues are dealt with through bilateral channels”, she noted, without referring directly to 2010 tensions, when EU leaders called for a review of the situation, saying the hefty number of bilateral agreements was becoming unwieldy, just as Switzerland was asking for a third round of negotiations to begin.
“Swiss laws are influenced by EU laws. And the EU says we must take into consideration future European law; we’re discussing it.” Calmy-Rey’s remark Friday night appeared to confirm comments made in February by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso after he met with her. Barroso said at the time that they agreed the system needs to be streamlined, simplified.
Swiss regulations increasingly in line with European
Swiss President Calmy-Rey with EC President José Barroso, February 2011
Switzerland is increasingly adapting regulations and laws to match European-wide ones. Bern announced Friday that importing cars from the EU is likely to become easier soon, for example, with Switzerland preparing to accept European certificates of road-worthiness. It plans to adopt EU standards for fixed child seats and dusk lights on new cars.
Sticky tax issues could have solution “soon”
Asked to elaborate on comments made Thursday in Bern about tax discussions with Britain and Germany, she said “We hope to have solutions soon.”
Calmy-Rey, who is also Switzerland’s foreign minister, met this week with Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. Thursday, after their working meetings, she said that “with the withholding tax model, a constructive solution has been found that protects the interests of both sides” and that they hope to finalize an agreement before the summer parliamentary breaks.
Germany and other European countries, notably France and the UK, are seeking ways to collect tax from their citizens’ holdings in Switzerland.
The tax arguments also include accusations by Switzerland’s neighbours that some cantons are offering tax deals to foreigners that smack of illegal subsidies.
IMF job not likely to go to a Swiss
The president laughed at what she called the expected question when the director’s job at the IMF (International Monetary Fund) was mentioned, saying that Switzerland is “realistic enough” to know its chances of putting its candidate in the job are slim.
Calmy-Rey told the group of journalists she is not unhappy with coverage of Switzerland by foreign media, but she wishes that in addition to chocolate and cows they would write more about innovation and research in Switzerland, two areas where the country excels.
Airplanes have made it into the air, with a little help from their governments, other nations argue
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva has confirmed that an Appellate Body has backed a 2010 WTO decision that $18 billion in subsidies to Airbus by the European Union have been illegal, a decision quickly welcomed by US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
“The WTO Appellate Body has confirmed without a doubt that Airbus received massive subsidies for more than 40 years and that these subsidies have greatly harmed the United States, including causing Boeing to lose sales and market share in key markets throughout the world. Today’s landmark ruling will significantly benefit the U.S. aerospace industry and American aerospace workers, simply by affirming that there must be fairness and accountability in the global race for aerospace business.”
The WTO’s ruling 18 May did not back the entire earlier decision, The Geneva organization notes in its “summary of key findings”, but it says that “the principal subsidies covered by the ruling include financing arrangements (known as “Launch Aid” or “Member state financing”) provided by France, Germany, Spain, and the UK for the development of the A300, A310, A320, A330/A340, A330-200, A340-500/600, and A380 LCA projects. The ruling also covers certain equity infusions provided by the French and German governments to companies that formed part of the Airbus consortium.”
The summary also adds a reminder that the Airbus decisions are just one side of the battle over what is called Trade in Large Civil Aircraft. “A separate dispute brought by the European Union against the United States for subsidies allegedly provided to Boeing is currently before the Appellate Body. ”
The US has argued against what it sees as direct government handouts while Europe has argued that the US subsidizes Boeing indirectly, by the Pentagon buying only from Boeing, at inflated prices.
The Financial Times described world markets as “sombre” Friday afternoon 6 May despite a recovery from Thursday’s 10 percent price fall for oil, and skittish trading in other markets. The drop in oil prices Thursday was the largest single day decline since the start of the global economic crisis, but a report from the US Labor Department that employment was up prompted oil prices to rise 4.6 percent Friday and other markets to recover somewhat as well.
Reuters reported Thursday that despite the price fall the Opec oil-producing nations were not likely to intervene by changing output. The news agency early Friday, before the recovery was underway, cited an unnamed Opec delegate, “The price had been going too high, to $120 a barrel, which is not good for consumers because it can affect the world economy.”
The swift price movements came on the heels of a presentation Tuesday by the European Union to Russian officials in Moscow of a new EU plan. “The Road Map to a Carbon Neutral Economy by 2050 sets out a strategy for the EU to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a mere 20 percent of 1990 levels over the next four decades,” reports the Moscow Times, adding that Russian officials were skeptical but unworried, saying new Asian markets could “pick up the slack” if the EU reduces its needs.
Oil rose from a trading low Friday of $105.15 for Brent crude to a high of $113.40 mid-afternoon before dropping slightly.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, Moscow Times, Reuters
photo: Xavier Haepe / wikipedia (flickr.com/people/vier)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Union’s frayed edges were showing Tuesday 26 April as governments and their citizens absorbed the newly published figures for sovereign debt and deficits, some worse than expected, while Italy and France called for reforms of Schengen rules in the face of massive immigration from North Africa.
Eurostat, the statistical office for the European Union, published 2010 figures for the euro area and the 27-member area, showing the five countries with the largest deficits (budget spending outstripping revenues) in terms of percentages of GDP (gross domestic product) to be: Ireland (32.4%), Greece (10.5%), the United Kingdom (10.4%), Spain (9.2%) and Portugal (9.1%). Greece had agreed not to let its deficit go deeper than 9 percent, the BBC points out.
Deficits on the whole decreased in 2010 compared to 2009 while debt and GDP increased, says Eurostat.
Five countries above 90%, debt ratio to GDP
Government debt (amount owed long-term by the government) declined as a whole but the debt ratio to GDP remained at significantly high levels for several countries.
“Fourteen Member States had government debt ratios higher than 60% of GDP in 2010: Greece (142.8%), Italy (119.0%), Belgium (96.8%), Ireland (96.2%), Portugal (93.0%), Germany (83.2%), France (81.7%), Hungary (80.2%), the United Kingdom (80.0%), Austria (72.3%), Malta (68.0%), the Netherlands (62.7%), Cyprus (60.8%) and Spain (60.1%).”
US, Swiss debt ratio compared to European ratios
The US debt, by comparison, is about 97 percent of GDP, a fact emphasized by the warning issued by S&P’s 18 April on the federal debt.
Switzerland’s federal debt was about 20 percent of GDP in early 2010, and with communal and cantonal debt added in, it stood at about 40 percent, well below the G20 average (closer to 100) and the average of most of Europe. Reuters, in December 2010, reported that Bern “expects Switzerland’s overall public debt to fall to around 37 percent of gross domestic product according to international standards next year [2011], less then half of the rate predicted by the OECD for the euro zone.”
Government spending decreased in 2010 in the two zones as a whole, while revenues were essentially static: “Government expenditure in the euro area was equivalent to 50.4% of GDP and government revenue to 44.4%. The figures for the EU27 were 50.3% and 44.0% respectively. In both zones, the government expenditure ratio decreased between 2009 and 2010, while the government revenue ratio remained almost unchanged.”
British military spending data questioned
Two countries prompted “reservations”, Romania and Great Britain, the latter for concerns over its reporting of military spending: “Eurostat is expressing a reservation on the quality of the data reported by the United Kingdom, due to uncertainties on the time of recording of military expenditure. The United Kingdom does not record military expenditure on a delivery basis, as required by the relevant Eurostat Decision of 9 March 2006.”
EU figures compared to Switzerland, USA
The warning by S&P’s 18 April on the US federal debt underscored it’s
Schengen rules don’t fit current situation, France and Italy argue
France and Italy, which have been at odds over how to handle large numbers of North Africans flowing across Europe’s southern borders, joined forces Tuesday on the occasion of a French-Italian summit. Leaders Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi have jointly sent off a letter to Brussels, they said, underscoring their commitment to the Schengen agreement on the free movement of people but insisting that the agreement needs to be reformed.
They did not specify what this would involve, but they cited the exceptional circumstances caused by events in North Africa, according to Le Monde (Fr).
Complete table, by country, from Eurostat
The Greek dilemma, Economist, 26 April 2011
The strong showing of Finland’s nationalist True Finns party in elections Sunday 17 April have put a damper on Portugal’s bid for a European Union financial bailout. The party zoomed from 6 to 39 seats in parliamentary elections, taking third place after the Conservative party, with 44 seats and the opposition Social Democrats with 42 seats.
The True Finns party turned the election into a vote over Finland’s willingness to back a rescue package for Portugal, which is currently negotiating one with the EU. Any such package requires a unanimous vote from the 17-member eurozone countries. The Conservatives will have to invite at least one of the other two parties to a coalition, reports Reuters, and while the Social Democrats are not against rescue packages, they oppose the current arrangements for funding them.
Links to other sites: Euronews, Reuters/The Globe & Mail, Guardian
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -”All the samples tested up to now have been negative and the products may be sold,” the Swiss federal council said about Japanese foods in a statement issued late Thursday 14 April. “Food products coming from Japan and sold in Switzerland pose no danger to health.”
The announcement was part of a broader statement about Switzerland bringing its checks on Japanese food into line with newly revised European Union standards in the wake of recent radiation fears in Japan. The Swiss federal government noted the importance of maintaining identical standards, to help Japanese exporters, Swiss importers and consumers.
Switzerland’s 23rd place out of 31 on European Mipex shows action needed, says Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s rank for anti-discrimination policies, near the bottom of 31 countries reviewed by Mipex, the European Union’s Migrant Integration Policy Index, is a clear indication that action is needed, the Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism (CFR) says in a press release 5 April.
The commission’s proposals were published at the same time that a conference was held in Bern on Switzerland and the Mipex review. The third Mipex index was published 27 February 2011.
Switzerland ranked 23 out of 31 overall, but only 30 out of 31 for anti-discrimination policies. “The fact is that Switzerland does not has adequate legislation to fight against discrimination, the mechanisms for applying laws are weak and the government services responsible for equal opportunity do not have the means they need to do their job; since the last review, in 2007, no progress has been made in this area.”
CRF proposes 10 measures to rectify situation
The CFR is proposing 10 measures, among them recommendations to include anti-discrimination in cantonal constitutions, to give more teeth to penalties for those found guilty of discrimination, to provide better funding for state agencies that work in this area and to encourage cantons to add non-discrimination as a requirement for licensing.
Two examples that are provided in the last area are Vaud, which requires private clubs that are licensed to use the canton’s lakes for boating courses, for example, must show that they do not discriminate, and Neuchatel, which licenses daycare groups only if they show they do not discriminate.
Mipex measures laws and policies in each country
The index is based on 148 policy indicators that are not the result of expert opinion, as with many indexes, but rather than attemt to measure public laws, policies and research, says the EU group.
“In every country, independent scholars and practitioners in migration law, education and anti-discrimination filled out the score for each indicator based on the country’s publicly available documents as of May 2010,” it notes. “All scores were anonymously peer-reviewed by a second expert” with national experts providing input on policy changes and the reasons behind them.
International meeting ends without further decisions on aiding Libyan rebels
Qaddafi forces push back rebels
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 30 March formally adopted the UN Security Council’s measures against Libya, taken 26 February, as well as the European Union’s decisions concerning Libya, 28 February and including EU complementary actions. The move by the Swiss cabinet Wednesday cancels Switzerland’s own moves 21 February to unilaterally block funds that may belond to the Libyan leader and those close to him.
The EU’s decisions in particular duplicate Switzerland’s own actions in the financial area: the EU has voted to forbid supplying any materials that could be used for internal repression in Libya, and the list of people affected by financial sanctions and travel restrictions has been lengthened, from Switzerland’s original list.
The move by Bern also brings to a halt criticism from some corners that Switzerland acted too soon and alone in blocking Qaddafi assets.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of people employed in Switzerland rose by 1.4 percent from January 2010 to January 2011, the Federal Statistics Office says in a report released 29 March. Growth in employment in the European Union during the same one-year period was 0.3 percent.
Unemployment, using the ILO (International Labour Organization) definition fell in Switzerland from 4.8 to 4.2 percent. In the EU it rose, using the ILO definition, from 9.3 to 9.5 percent.
The number of employed Swiss rose by 0.4 percent, to 3.35 million, while the number of employed foreigners rose by 4. percent to 1.27m. Unemployment among foreign workers rose more rapidly and by a greater percentage during the global economic crisis.
Qaddafi clan assets have now been officially frozen by Austria and France in addition to Britain, the US and Switzerland, with estimates varying widely but the money expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars. The latest confirmations of blocked funds came in broadcast interviews in France and Austria.
Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fr), AP/680 News
The European Union has removed 35 people from the list of more than 160 in Zimbabwe who are sanctioned: they are not permitted to travel to the EU and any assets they might have are frozen. The move came without explanation, although as allAfrica points out three of them have died and the others are virtually all spouses of officials in Robert Mugabe’s regime. It suggests that the idea might be to encourage those still on the list to “mend their ways”.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is increasing sanctions against Iran to the same level as those put in place by its main commercial partners, the government said Wednesday morning 19 January. The tougher measures were taken to ensure that Switzerland is not used by Iran to get around the stricter sanctions put in place by the European Union, in particular, in October 2010.
The list of persons whose assets are frozen is also being extended, the same day that the Swiss have moved to freeze assets of former Tunisian President Ben Ali and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire, who has refused to give in to pressure from other countries to acknowledge he did not win his country’s recent elections.
Swiss exports to Iran were CHF700 million in 2010, mainly pharmaceuticals, machinery and agricultural products. Imports came to CHF41 million. The volume of trade fell by CHF63 overall, compared to 2009.
The new level of sanctions is also needed to give legal protection to Swiss companies operating internationally, according to Bern, as they now risk being caught between two levels of sanctions.
Dialogue with Mormons to remain open, but quick change appears unlikely
Parliament in Bern: a chilly welcome for missionaries in Switzerland, now considered to be "gainfully employed" and covered by work permit quotas
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A statement by the European Commission Tuesday 14 December on relations with Switzerland and its fellow Efta countries, could be a setback for a US-based group that would like to see its religious missionaries continue to work in Switzerland.
Switzerland is under growing pressure from the European Union over restrictions it has issued that the EU says are not fully complying with the agreement on the free movement of people in Europe, to which Switzerland is a party. The European Commission noted in a 14 December statement on relations with Efta countries, which includes Switzerland, that the Swiss should end certain regulations, “for instance, the obligation in force in Switzerland to provide prior notification [before arriving for work] with an 8-day waiting period.”
The Swiss federal government noted in its official reply Tuesday that “the free movement of persons has been a major factor in intensifying the bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU. Today, over one million EU citizens live in Switzerland and over 200,000 people from the EU cross the border every day to work into Switzerland.” It argues that several EU countries have similar regulations and that in Switzerland, “experience has shown that the accompanying measures are necessary to protect wages and working conditions,” a veiled reference to unscrupulous employers, particularly those who hire migrant workers and low-wage workers. “In this context for example, checks carried out by labour inspectors revealed breaches in one fifth of cases.”
Switzerland, with foreigners making up more than 22 percent of the population, has one of the largest foreign resident working populations in Europe, and it maintains a work permit quota system for workers from non-EU or Efta countries.
The quote system covers missionaries.
A group of 14 US senators, many of whom are Mormons (members of the Latter Day Saints church), petitioned the Swiss Embassy in the US earlier this year, swissinfo reported 13 December, to have Switzerland consider changing new work permit rules.
