20 Minutes. The German plan to charge foreign residents to use their motorways was judged discriminatory by EU officials because the charges would only be imposed on foreigners. This project “still contains elements that are contrary to european rights and violate fundamental principals of treaties, in particular discrimination based on nationality” voiced the European Parliament, which […]
Report shows risks of “low cost” terrorism in Switzerland
Tribune de Genève. The Swiss government recently published its third report on how to combat attacks by jihadists. The report, named TETRA, opens with a description of the terrorist attack in Berlin where a truck was driven into a crowded Christmas market killing 12 people. It then set outs the concerns experts have about the emergence […]
Swiss road victims down overall but higher for cyclists
20 Minutes. In 2016, the number dying on Swiss roads dropped 15% compared with 2015. 216 people died, 37 less than the year before (-15%). While there were fewer car, motorcycle and pedestrian accident victims, the number of seriously injured cyclists climbed. Since records began in 1940, only 1945, when 211 died, has seen fewer […]
Vaud discusses extending winter school holiday to 2 weeks
Le Matin. In Switzerland, this ski season has been disappointing, particularly if you have school aged children. During the Vaud school holiday this season, the fourth week of February, there was limited snow. Even at high resorts like Verbier, snow conditions were fairly average across the week. The week before there was good snow. But then […]
Swiss women third latest to have first child
Le Matin. In 2015, the average age Swiss mothers had their first child was unchanged from 2014, according to recent Eurostat data. At a european level, only Italians and Spaniards left motherhood later than Swiss. In 2015, the average age of Swiss first-time mums was 30.6 years, slightly younger than Spanish first-time mothers (30.7). In Italy […]
Low strength cannabis sales explode across Switzerland
According to an article in Tribune de Genève, some cigarette vendors are desperately searching for supplies of the drug to meet demand. Recently kiosques in Geneva started selling low strength cannabis like they sell cigarettes. Some kiosque owners are over the moon, while others desperately search for a supplier. One vendor told Tribune de Genève: […]
Tax cheat loses right to Swiss citizenship
Tribune de Genève. A German national who married a Swiss citizen lost his right to Swiss citizenship after Swiss authorities learned he had evaded tax in Germany. Four years after marrying, the man applied to become Swiss. In March 2014, he was granted the right to be naturalised under the facilitated process, a process requiring […]
Vaud rejects plan to follow Geneva and give permits to illegal workers
Le Matin. Jean-Michel Dolivo put forward a motion for Vaud to follow Geneva and grant permits to illegal workers. Vaud’s cantonal parliament rejected the plan by 71 votes to 60. The proposal would have worked in a similar way to Papyrus, a plan unveiled in Geneva recently, which grants visas to illegal workers that meet […]
Nationwide burka ban rejected by Swiss government
20 Minutes. After the National Assembly narrowly accepted a proposal for a nationwide ban on the burka, the Council of States (upper house), rejected the plan on Thursday by 26 votes to 9, with 4 abstentions. The proposal put forward by Walter Wobmann (UDC/SVP) has now been definitively rejected. At the same time Walter Wobmann […]
Swiss score highest number of patents per capita. Again.
According to the European Patents Office (EPO), once again Switzerland topped the per capita patents ranking in 2016, with 892 applications per million inhabitants. Second and third places went to the Netherlands (405) and Sweden (360), followed by Denmark (334) and Finland (331). The first non-European country was Japan in ninth place (166), well above […]
