BERN, SWITZERLAND – Journalists have been hounding the Swiss government for months about the number of US clients of Credit Suisse targeted by the US Justice department and Wednesday evening the information came out, but through a back door: it was tucked into a budget note from the Federal Council. The number of clients whose data the bank turned over to Swiss authorities in order for the government to share them with US authorities is 650, and the expected cost is CHF4.7 million, a tab the government expects the bank to pick up
In addition, the council is requesting CHF1.1m to cover the end of the work linked to a 2009 agreement between Switzerland and the US concerning tax evaders who were clients of UBS.
What isn’t clear from the budget message is where the US and Switzerland are with a political agreement that would cover all Swiss banks, but it appears that the deadline to review the Credit Suisse cases, which is not provided, is linked to the larger discussion.
The information was part of a request by the Federal Council (cabinet) to parliament to approve 13 additional credits, beyond the basic budget, for CHF90 million. Two of the largest projects are CHF14 million for European research organizations including CHF12.2m for Cern, and CHF60 million to encourage technology and innovation in the face of the strong franc. CHF7 million is earmarked for a new alarm system to alert the population and, last item on the list, CHF5.8 million to “cover the cost of the additional work done for the administrative assistance request from the United States, an extra burden linked notably to the Credit Suisse affair.”
The discreet budget item: a request for CHF5.8m to cover the cost of office space, specialists and other expenses linked to the Credit Suisse affair with the US Justice Department
The budget request notes that the US request for administrative assistance was made 26 September 2011 but that work had already begun a year earlier to prepare for such requests to enable Swiss authorities to move more quickly on grouped requests, based on the experience with UBS.
The federal Service d’échange d’informations en matière fiscale (SEI), the office within the tax department which handles information requested by other governments, “was reinforced by taking on temporary staff, lawyers and administrative staff, as well as external collaborators (who had already been hired for the [UBS case]. Additional office space had to be hired and the IT infrastructure had to be adapted to handle the new situation. The additional credits requested (CHF4.7m) must cover the extra costs incurred by the administrative assistance request and concern for the most part (CHF2m) the cost of consultants.”
Credit Suisse will be billed for the total cost, says the Federal Council.
Lucerne's famous weeping lion, the Loewenthal, was carved in memory of the Swiss Guards who died in the 1792 Paris storming of the Tuileries. It is widely seen as an unofficial symbol of Swiss neutrality and is one of the country's most popular site for tourists. (photo, Wikipedia)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government, in a bid to underscore the country’s neutrality, has proposed a new law that would make it illegal for companies based in Switzerland, including holding companies, to use mercenaries anywhere in the world. The new law would oblige security companies to register with the government details of their activities abroad. Bern says it has opted for a registration approach, rather than an authorization system, in the interests of efficiency and simplicity: firms’ activities will be noted, checked and if necessary, prohibited, with a system of fines and prison sentences for breaking the law.
Bern said in a statement issued Wednesday that the law, open for consultation by interested parties as of Wednesday 12 October, “would apply to firms based in Switzerland that offer private security services abroad or that have activities in Switzerland linked to such services. Companies with their head offices in Switzerland or which control security firms abroad (holding companies) would also be covered by the law.”
Specifically, the new law would prohibit:
- direct participation in hostilities (mercenary work) in cases of armed conflict in other countries
- recruiting, training and making available security personnel for participation in hostilities, as an intermediary or directly
- supplying, from Switzerland, any security services that seriously breach human rights.
Security firms would be obliged to respect the International Code of Behaviour of 9 November 2010 in agreeing to avoid all offensive action and recourse to lethal forms of violence, except in cases of self-defense or to save the life of another person.
Switzerland was famous for supplying the world with mercenaries, notably during the Rennaissance, but its neutrality has been recognized internationally since the Treaty of Paris in 1815 and the 1848 Constitution bans military alliances.
Swiss banking secrecy intact with insistance on “no fishing expeditions”
Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Treaty agreements interpretations clearer, says Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GeenvaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council is asking parliament’s authorization to amend double taxation treaties (DTT) with a number of countries, to more precisely define what is meant by “administrative assistance”. The term covers requests for help, from one government to another, in cases of suspected tax fraud or tax evasion.
The announcement 6 April comes two months after the council agreed that the amendments are necessary because the more precise interpretations were not available when the treaties were signed in June 2010. They will affect treaties with: Denmark, Finland, France, the UK, Qatar, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway and Austria. A DTT signed with the US will also require an amendment, to be handled separately.
Parliament must be consulted for any changes to the treaties, under Swiss law.
Switzerland has in the past insisted that help could be provided only if a bank account owner was identified, but in February 2011 the ruling Federal Council agreed that an interpretation clause should stipulate that “in future indicating the name and address of the taxpayer and the information holder is no longer absolutely necessary for processing administrative assistance requests, provided that the identification occurs by other means and fishing expeditions are not involved.”
The interpretation clause is necessary, the council argues, to ensure that all states in the treaties have a level playing field and to avoid a “foreseeable obstacle” if Switzerland’s assistance is not deemed to be in line with the treaty because of varying intepretations. The clause will reduce “the risk of failure in the peer review process of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes”. the council says in a press release.
Tax assistance only for individual cases: amendments will not change this
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Back in 1993 someone told then-Swiss President Adolf Ogi that a group photo could do wonders for the popularity of the ruling seven-member Federal Council, Switzerland’s equivalent of a cabinet. And since then the ruling seven plus the chancellor, who oversees the administrative side of the government, have lined up every year for a photo. The 2011 version has a special look: for the first time in Swiss history, there are more women as councillors than men.
The seven members of the council are elected for four years and the one-year job of president rotates among them. Micheline Calmy-Rey, Socialist, is the 2011 president of the Swiss Confederation.
Left to right: Johann Schneider-Ammann, Didier Burkhalter, Doris Leuthard, Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, lEveline Widmer-Schlumpf (vice-president), Ueli Maurer, Simonetta Sommaruga, Chancellor Corina Casanova
Simonetta Sommaruga, new Swiss federal councillor, victim of "punitive action" says her party
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Five days after the new cabinet (Federal Council) was elected in Bern, the ministries overseen by the ruling seven federal councillors were announced by the federal chancellery, the department that serves as chief of staff to the federal government and the council.
The shakeup following the election of two new members of the council is greater than usual, with only three councillors retaining their ministries. The councillors were, unusually, obliged to take a vote in the end. The three who retain their ministries:
Micheline Calmy-Rey, foreign affairs
Didier Burkhalter, interior
Ueli Maurer, defense.
Simonetta Sommaruga, newly elected to the council to replace Moritz Leuenberger, will oversee the justice and police ministry, the first time a Socialist has held this post in 38 years. Johann Schneider-Ammann will head the ministry for the economy, Seco.
Leuenberger’s ministry, Detec (environment, transport, energy and communication) has been given to centre-right Doris Leuthard. She is also currently president of Switzerland, a one-year post that rotates among the seven councillors.
Conservative Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will head the finance ministry, as she did for several weeks in 2009 when Hans-Rudolf Merz, who is retiring, was hospitalized following a heart attack in 2009.
The Socialist Party was quick to express its anger, saying the assignments don’t bode well for the future “collegiality” of the Federal Council and that Sommaruga is being punished. “It’s unacceptable for the majority of the Federal Council and in particular its president Doris Leuthard not to make sure that each federal councillor is able to put his or her skills to best use,” says party boss Christian Levrat in a press release. He points out that Simonetta Sommaruga’s work experience, background and experience in parliament make were well-qualified to head five of the seven ministries, but instead “she’s left to resign herself to taking on one of the others.”
Simonetta Sommaruga and Johann Schneider-Ammann elected to the Swiss Federal Council
Simonetta Sommaruga, new Swiss federal councillor
Simone Sommaruga, Socialist rose in hand, accepts congratulations in Swiss Federal Assembly
Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win
Update 3 12:52 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, or cabinet, will have a majority of women, with the election of Socialist Simonetta Sommaruga as the fourth of seven councillors.
She replaces Moritz Leuenberger, also a Socialist.
Sommaruga, from canton Bern, received 159 votes in a fourth round of voting. A candidate must have an absolute majority, 121 votes, to win the seat.
She defeated Jean-Françoise Rime, the only right-wing UDC candidate for the two open seats on the council, who received 81 votes.
Italian speakers lose their candidate
Pleading for Italian-speaking Swiss
The second and third rounds of voting for the second seat on the council began with most candidates receiving similar votes, prompting a second round of votes, but canton Ticino’s candidate, who received only 12 votes, bowed out after making a plea for the Swiss government to end the marginalization of Italian-speakers.
Background, Swiss Federal Council elections, GenevaLunch
Proposed changes to the William Rappard Centre
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council has approved CHF50 million towards the final phase of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO)’s renovation and expansion project.
The funds will be distributed as a CHF10 million contribution given to the WTO by Switzerland – the host government – and a CHF40 million, 50-year interest-free loan.
The Swiss parliament has already financed CHF45 million towards the first two phases of the project, including a CHF20 million loan.
The bill must now be approved by the Parliament.
Related stories: New building will be respective and unobtrusive, TdG
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Le Temps, the main newspaper for intellectuals in French-speaking Switzerland, is calling for reforms to the way the Swiss Federal Council works, in the wake of a series of international crises.
Le Temps is harshly critical Wednesday morning 10 February in an editorial that calls for the whole “collegial” approach to government to be re-thought. The Swiss government consists of seven federal councilors from five parties, approved by Parliament, who work behind closed doors. They reach decisions that are then supported publicly by the group, which speaks with one voice.
But Le Temps argues that the group has been too much influenced by the members’ parties since the days when Christoph Blocher ruled the right-wing UDC, and that it is increasingly difficult for the Council to make decisions quickly, after adequate reflection. The councilors are also overloaded with work as ministers in charge of government offices, departments and ministries, says the Geneva-based newspaper. In a related article Le Temps points to the slowness of the council in making decisions about banks and double taxation agreements, but most importantly a lack of clear communication and strategy as evidence that reform is needed.
Thomas Held, director of the think tank Avenir Suisse, says in an interview that is part of Le Temps’s package of articles that the government is being overtaken by events and is not guiding reactions as it should, as a result.
Swiss Federal Council (cabinet), 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s cabinet, the seven-member Swiss Federal Council, which governs as a body of equals, has published its official photo for 2010. Left to right: Didier Burkhalter, the chancellor for the Swiss Confederation Corina Casanova, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Ueli Maurer, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss President Doris Leuthard, Vice-president Moritz Leuenberger. The presidency is a one-year rotating position, while the chancellor’s job is to oversee the smooth functioning of the administrative side of the government.
Lovely for football fans, but not the real thing: Swiss flag is a square
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss flag, the word “Swiss” and “Made in Switzerland” are getting logo-like protection, with tighter restrictions on their use in Switzerland and abroad. The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 18 November recommended key changes to intellectual property coverage for “Swissness” that are designed to make up for a current lack of precision.
Consumers will benefit, says the government, noting that more than 50 percent of consumers in a recent poll said they would be willing to pay up to twice the price for several Swiss food products. Letter box companies will be hurt, says Bern, since they will no longer be able to say they are Swiss.
The legal changes are designed to ensure that the CHF6 billion a year, or 1 percent of Swiss GDP attributable to the idea of Swiss quality, has stronger legal backing.
The government calculates that the value added by a Swiss label can be as high as 20 percent for agricultural goods such as food and wine.
Swiss Federal Council 1 November 2009
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council’s (cabinet) new 2009 official photo is out. It includes newcomer Didier Burkhalter, far left, who replaces Pascal Couchepin, who retired at the end of October. The other counselors are, left to right: Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Moritz Leuenberger, President Hans-Rudolf Merz, Vice-president Doris Leuthard, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Ueli Maurer, and Corina Casanova, who is the Swiss chancelor.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, concerned about changes to the G20 group of the world’s largest economies and calls for changes to other international financial bodies, has told the country’s finance ministry to take steps to strengthen Switzerland’s role in the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. Developing countries and emerging markets have been calling for reform of these two bodies, the two Bretton Woods international financial institutions, in recent months, suggesting that voting weights need to be reconsidered. Switzerland is keen to ensure that its seats on the Executive Councils of each group become permanent.
The cabinet (Federal Council) has also instructed the finance ministry to work closely with the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss financial market supervisory authority Finma to strengthen its role in the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
Peter Brabeck, chairman, Nestle
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Peter Brabeck, chairman of Vevey-based multinational, says the company could reconsider Switzerland as its home base if the government responds to pressure to cap executive salaries.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 19 August approved six of the 12 new double taxation agreements required by the OECD before the end of 2009 if Switzerland is to avoid being considered an “uncooperative” country by the group of 30 rich countries, in terms of tax assistance to other nations. Such countries make up the much publicized OECD gray list, versus a black list of tax havens.
Update 13:45 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) met Monday 10 August in an extraordinary session that had sparked speculation they could be meeting to discuss the ongoing UBS court case in the US. Council members were briefed on the case, Swiss news agency ats was told by the Swiss vice-chancellor, André Simonazzi, who refused any further comment and insisted that no further information will be provided until the negotiations between the US and Switzerland for an out of court settlement are concluded.
UBS not mentioned, but Swiss cabinet takes economic measures to fight crisis
Instead, the Council took steps to create the necessary legal base that will allow the Swiss parliament to put in place a series of measures to help the country cope with the economic crisis.
Swiss Federal Council 2009: whose department might have leaked?
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Tinner affair continues to cast a long shadow in Switzerland, with the news Monday 3 August that a special prosecutor has been named to investigate a likely media link in the high security case. What started out as a “simple” case of presumed homegrown nuclear proliferation, a part of the Pakistani nuclear engineer AQ Khan network, in which a Swiss family from St Gallen was implicated and imprisoned for a time, turned into high political drama pitting a Swiss federal judge against the Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) in a case of executive privilege.
The cabinet claimed the right, on national security grounds, to destroy a part of the documentation incriminating the Tinner family. It argued that the explicit technical details were too dangerous to be made public in a court of law. The federal judge disagreed and in a secret decision, sought to impound the evidence.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal council has agreed to hold back on the destruction of documents related to the St. Gallen family Tinner, allegedly implicated in an international nuclear proliferation network. In an agreement with the Control Commission Delegation (CD), the Swiss parliament’s investigative branch for national security issues, Justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, agreed to allow certain of the documents to be made available to the judicial investigation and for the Tinner family defense attorneys.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Dalai Lama will be in Lausanne 4-5 August, part of a European tour organized by the Tibetan community, but the Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) will not be sending a delegation to greet him. The highest-ranking Swiss official outside the Cabinet, the head of the lower house of Parliament, Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi, will instead travel to Lausanne to welcome him as head of a spiritual community. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to hold a public conference Wednesday 5 August on “World peace through inner peace” and this event, plus the other talks at the conference at the Malley sports centre, are sold out.
Bellinzona, Ticino and Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Federal Council (cabinet) and the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona are in a curious standoff over the Tinner affair, in which a Swiss father and his two sons were involved with an international ring that was sharing plans for making nuclear weapons.
The cabinet says it will destroy some of the files linked to the Tinner affair, while the court says it cannot do so. The cabinet argues, with backing from the Atomic Energy Commission, that some of the files, which detail how to make nuclear weapons, are so sensitive they must be destroyed.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Pascal Couchepin, one of the seven members of the ruling Federal Government (cabinet) in Switzerland, resigned early Friday morning. The resignation of the 67-year-old councilor who has been in the government for 11 years, has been expected for some weeks and comes at the end of a parliamentary session. Couchepin is giving a conference Friday morning; the initial announcements did not provide details or an explanation for the resignation, which takes effect 31 October 2009.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has decided to continue providing financial help in the form of donations that will not be repaid, to Burkina Faso, a country the Swiss consider an international aid priority. Since 1998 the country’s GDP has grown by 5.7% annually, thanks in large part to economic reforms and help from the World Bank, the IMF and donor countries.
