4 Burst results for "Swiss Foreign Policy"
Monocle 24: The Globalist
"swiss foreign policy" Discussed on Monocle 24: The Globalist
"Well, let's continue now with today's newspapers and joining me from our studio in Zürich is Florian ugly, who's a senior associate at four ounce, the Swiss foreign policy think tank. Florian, good morning. Thanks for coming back in. I know that you're there in our studio with the cafe right by there, the wonderful smell of coffee. I miss that studio and you're easy access to instant refreshment. Good morning, 13. It's lovely indeed, so you come in and the first thing you grab a coffee a cup of water and then some newspapers and just the studio is right in the back of the cafe so it is quite a nice morning greeting here indeed. And of course that does mean that there's a certain amount of noise coming through from the cafe but it's all part of the atmosphere. So you've grabbed your papers, you've had a look through what's jumped out at you. So we'll start with the story in Switzerland, and that's a resignation. So leave your lower issues. I should say the state secretary in Switzerland responsible for the negotiations with the European Union, and you have to know that this is probably the most important post in the foreign service of Switzerland. She resigned on Wednesday. I mean, it went public on Wednesday. And since then, there is quite a bit of soul searching going on as to why she resigned because you have to know for context that that's the third resignation in only 5 years. And for Switzerland, you know, that's a cycle we're not used to. So any clue as to why. So well, I mean, we're really, we're stuck in negotiations with the European Union. So I'm leaving a lawyer. She's a very well renowned diplomat. She has had several posters ambassadors before. So she has all the expertise that you could think of. But she's stuck because there is no clear political mandate. So we're kind of in a gridlock where the European Union demands that there is a framework agreement with Switzerland that would also basically establish rules as to what happens when Switzerland and the European Union don't agree as to how to proceed on a bilateral accord, so be it on trade accords or be it on courts regards to education, agriculture, policy, traffic, or traffic going from north to south, south to north through Switzerland. So there are all these different agreements and that you want a dedicated dispute settlement mechanism in Switzerland, there is no political majority on that. And yet you have the entire or a large part of the economy really pushing for that because everything is in gridlock now and there is no possibility to negotiate future deals or deals on emerging issues with the European Union such as, for example, the mets tech issue met to take industry which complained very loudly that they don't and that they're not no longer allowed to export into the European Union without restrictions. So you have the situation where politically it's just not possible. And yet kind of the economy and also large parts of society actually are in favor. And that is, I think, just a very frustrating posture, leave you alone is now 62 years old, so it's kind of towards retirement and she's going to become the ambassador in Berlin, so apparently she just thinks it's more rewarding to spend the last three years in the embassy in Berlin. Networking and meeting interesting people as opposed to having this frustrating job in Brussels with basically no support from the federal council and the political system. And it also points to a quite weak foreign minister, so Ignacio gas is the foreign minister of Switzerland. He does not have the weight in the federal council to really equip this state secretary with an actual mandate and the political backing to go to Brussels and really negotiate something. So it's really points to the fact that this issue is just going nowhere and a resignation so close to the retirement to me is really a sign that she doesn't see any opportunity or any way that this goes anywhere in the next two to three years. So it's just quite frustrating overall because it's such an important issue for Switzerland. But who takes on the job? Is anyone willing to do it? We don't know yet. So they have established a search commission and you have to know that before Libya lawyer Robert balzaretti he also took this job only for two and a half years before him Pascal Betty's will who's now the Swiss ambassador at the UN in New York. She only did it for less than a year. So it seems to be this job that nobody really wants despite it being the most important job in the suicide administration in the foreign service. So it's really quite controversial and as of now there are no rumors and there is nobody who put him or herself in place for this job because indeed I think there's not so much appetite to take it on. Well, whoever does has got a massive hill to climb in front of them. Speaking of which, let's talk about this imminent mountain slide. Yes, this is it. An entertaining somewhat entertaining story. So we have two villages in Switzerland with exactly the same name, very spelled the same as well. So it's brilliant and brilliant, both very Swiss German towns. One is in the bernese Alps and the other one is also in the eastern part of Switzerland and one namely the one in was never in the news in the past 50 years I would say. Because not many people go there, but now it is threatened by a mountain slide. So there are 83 people living in the village, and they have to be evacuated by today 6 p.m.. And it's affecting the other Brienne because people think they've got to leave from there. So people think that I don't think people think they have got to leave from there, but people tourists think are afraid that they have to rebook because actually many tourists go to brilliant and burn, and they think the place where they booked an apartment or a hotel room is threatened by a mountain slide because it's been all over the news and CNN and The New York Times. And there has been actually it's quite funny because through this little story we got to know how Switzerland handles imminent catastrophe. Catastrophe and there are different color codes and we were just talking about in the studio before, which is quite not intuitive. So we're in orange now, orange means people have to be evacuated. But so nobody's allowed to sleep there anymore. Kettle can remain, and people can come back during the day.
Monocle 24: The Globalist
"swiss foreign policy" Discussed on Monocle 24: The Globalist
"In Zürich, which is where we head now, because here's a statement I never thought I'd read out loud. Switzerland's train network is in trouble. It's over plans to change the national railway into a so called two speed network or to talk trains and delighted to say florent ugly senior associate at forest, the Swiss foreign policy think tank drones meet a very good morning to Florian. How is Zürich this morning? Good morning. Surik is rainy. It has been this week, but trains are running fine. Right. Okay, well of course they're good. So far so good, but that's all set to change. So what's gone wrong with the Swiss train network? It is. So an announcement by the Swiss national railway company, the sbd kind of caught a lot of cities in the French speaking region off guard because there is a supposedly a ten year break in the direct connection between initiative, which is in the western part of Switzerland in the jura region. So and Geneva. So there's no more direct trains. You have to change in Lausanne and it takes half an hour longer. And that's caused a lot of outrage and an official letter of complaint now by signed by at the moment. 7 large cities in the French speaking part amongst them Geneva and initiative. So what's gone wrong here? Because normally we hear of connections being created, not broken. I'm one of the sufferers because I have one of those famous GA so the urban Margie naval I'm this card where you can board any train at any time and so it stands for the entire year. And that actually take this route quite frequently. So I mean, what's happening is basically there is a lot of construction work required in the railway network. And of course, sometimes that leads to break. But brakes, but a ten year break is really exceptional. And the SPB, the train, the railway company tries to sell this by saying, well, but on the other hand, you have more frequent connections to the second largest town in the French speaking part, which is Lausanne. Which these cities acknowledge because it's an important connection for students, but also for economic relations. But I think there is kind of an underlying pattern here. And that is 25% of the Swiss population are French speaking. And they generally tend to have very different political opinions. So you see in many, in many public votes, you see the votes would have gone totally different if the French speaking part were to decide. But because they're only 25%, they usually lose out because the German speaking part is more conservative. And so there is a general tension here. And also a general thing that if the French speaking part were to decide, probably would invest more money in the railway networks. Now we haven't. We have to repair them or upgrade them. And that is to the detriment of this region. So I think this is kind of really playing into this kind of language divide with the French speaking part. Usually being more liberal, more progressive, more eco friendly and the German speaking part a bit more conservative. Florian ugly. Thank you as ever for joining us on the line from Zürich. Here with the globalist on Monica radio. UBS has over 900 investment analysts from over 100 different countries. Over 900 of the sharpest minds and freshest thinkers in the world of finance today. To find out how we can help you. Contact us at UBS dot
Monocle 24: The Globalist
"swiss foreign policy" Discussed on Monocle 24: The Globalist
"Com. 8 20 in Zürich, which is where we have now for today's paper review on Monaco radio, I'm delighted to say that joining us from our studio 90 is Florian ugly senior associate at four House, the Swiss foreign policy think tank, a very good morning to Florian. How Zürich looking this morning. Good morning, looking absolutely fabulous. So you see the snowy mountains in the distance because it is very cold and very wintry, but brisk morning, blue skies. Seems I can winter. Rub it in, thanks, Laurie. It's just gray in London. There's no great surprise. In your glorious setting, what have you spotted that you think we need to know about in the papers today? So I'd like to talk quickly about banks since Katie Swiss has gone down or officially emerged with UBS. There has been a lot of talk, of course, around parade plots. And one of the stories that is front and center, and also in the Financial Times, is that the Swiss government has decided to cut the bonus of Credit Suisse. Courtesy was manager is basically about 50 to 60 million. Which is actually quite ridiculous because it's only 10% of outstanding bonuses and at the same time we read a story in the financial time that hedge funds made 7 billion short selling stocks from banks, including Credit Suisse. So it just shows how little the public can do one stay safe to these banks. And what happens next is there's a great quote in this piece, the liquidity crisis is probably over, but the solvency crisis is about to begin. That's what rumors are at Wall Street. So the liquidity crisis is if a bank basically is solvent. So they have enough capital. But it's just that people basically throw their money too quickly so that they have illiquid assets, but they need liquidity to pay out their clients. So that's what's typically referred to as a bank run and where the Central Bank can then help. And it's in a sense a temporary issue because there is no structural problem. But if there is a solvency problem, that means there is a structural problem. So that means that banks are actually not solvent. So there is a structural business model problem behind what they do. And so there is suspicion that some of the banks might actually run into such solvency issues and that's also why this Financial Times article talks about the short selling positions. There is still there. So for some banks like Deutsche Bank, they have not really gone down or first republic. I think if I remember correctly, 20 to 30% of total stocks are shortened, that means that Wall Street analysts bet on those stocks going down and they bet on this because they think that there is a structural and underlying problem there and it's not just a temporary one. So it shows again, you know what, just after 20, 2008. So that's just 14 years ago. And we're kind of in a similar situation where we have to bail out banks. And it just shows that the regulation in the financial sector. I mean, in my opinion, is not strict enough, and it's not been implemented accordingly. And in that context, when you talk about regulation and banks being bailed out, when we look at the ends at Z article today that you mentioned about the reduction of bonuses of the senior credits executives. It says high wages and bonuses, but still taking advantage of state aids. This combination brings a people's soul to a boil. It talks an awful lot about how the government. The federal council are all trying to navigate their way through this enormous change in the Swiss banking sector. But there is that push and pull, isn't there that you have the authorities, but then you also have the private banks as well. I mean, look, it just shows it shows the problem of it. So what politicians are trying to do or the federal council together with them is to somehow bring out the message. Hey, we are on top of this story. We can also decide and it's not that we just have to do things because we are forced by what happens economically. But that's why I wanted to give you the numbers because it shows you this is purely symbolic. I mean, 50 million, it's 10% of outstanding bonuses. And these bonuses used to be much more because in shares. And so there used to be worth much, much more. So it's actually much less than 10%, so it's absolutely minuscule. Compared to the 200 billion guarantees that the Swiss government offered to credit Swiss. And they had to act purely because this bank is too large and because letting the investment arm of Credit Suisse collapse would have angered UK and U.S. authorities so much. So there was a lot of international back channeling and pressure. And somehow the Swiss federal council is just trying to publicly maintain that story that they have an edge in this that they can decide and then they actually have some decision room, which, in fact, I think there is extremely little of that. But they're desperately trying to get the story out that it's not the public just bailing out these banks because of the sheer size of Credit Suisse and because of international pressure. But it is actually the public also having some agency. But the underlying problem here, I think, is really that the public doesn't have this agency and that we really should have a debate about why this is the case and how we can change it. Unfortunately, debate in parliament shows a bit the other way so there was an extraordinary debate on this issue in the key commission of the Swiss parliament. Two hours were scheduled for four different topics and the banks of greatest bailout got about 25 or 30 minutes of discussion time according to the Swiss watch because you divide the time equally, which is absolutely ridiculous.
Monocle 24: The Globalist
"swiss foreign policy" Discussed on Monocle 24: The Globalist
"Focusing on the security section is the situation in East Africa. Yes, you're absolutely correct. When Sweden also joins and when Finland joins will be in a situation where almost all the EU countries are members of NATO, and also if you look at the map of Europe, you will see that all the countries almost all the countries bordering Russia in Europe will then be NATO members. So that will definitely help increase the political and military clout of Europe and then also just simple military strategic planning, you know, when you have the whole sort of northern dimension of NATO as member countries because before it was just Norway who was a NATO member so that will also help the defense strategic planning. And finally, just what's the timeline on this? Will Finland have to wait for the NATO summit at the end of June to be considered for rapid accession. In all likelihood, it's going to happen much before that actually. So just now this morning I read that the finished broadcasting company Y Elise correspondent in turkey said that turkey will ratify Finland's membership in all likelihood on Wednesday, so that's tomorrow. And after that, all that remains is basically Finland to some representative of Finland to travel to Washington, D.C., to permanently lodge Finland's native membership papers in a vault with that's basically a formality that always takes place. And then that basically means that Finland is a member. So it's said to happen already this week. Patrice, that's exciting news. Thank you very much indeed. That was monocles Helsinki correspondent petty birds off. Well, let's continue now with today's papers and joining me from Monaco studio in Zürich is Florian egley, who's a senior associate at fur house the Swiss foreign policy think tank. Florian lovely to talk to you again. We're going to start off by looking at retired women who are suing the Swiss government over climate action. Tell us more. Good morning. Yes, this is a story today in the end it's at and actually tomorrow will be the first time that the European court of human rights is debating at climate case. So there will be debated in the grand chamber and that means it's public in this case is a case that is brought about by swimming so on average there is 73 years old and they're suing the Swiss government for not reaching the climate targets that the Swiss government has committed to as part of the Paris agreement. And I mean, there are some suggestions in this article that Greenpeace is behind this. Indeed, so Greenpeace is sponsoring that effort. So there is supporting it financially and of course they're supporting it legally so they basically paying for the lawyers because as you can imagine you need excellent lawyers to pull that case off and they've gone through all the courts and Switzerland, they've lost and now they're in Strasbourg at the European court of human rights and Greenpeace is using this as an effective campaigning tool, I would say. So it's not the green pink, Greenpeace case. Up front, it's basically these women claiming their rights to save livelihoods to health because part of their case is the health issues that some of these members quite personally and explicitly can prove due to heat stress in summer. So that is really kind of like a very personal story. And it isn't the usual campaign that you would see from an environmental NGO. Let's move on now to news from the UN Security Council. So this is a story that has been picked up by some online media, so Francois van gaat gisera news, Brazil has put up emotion in the UN Security Council and to conduct a comprehensive transparent and impartial investigation on all aspects of the act of sabotage on north stream one and two gas pipelines. This motion unsurprisingly failed. But it got the approval of China and Brazil together with 12 abstentions. And I think what's interesting in this is not necessary that China and Brazil supported it, but rather that Russia, I mean, of course it is politically motivated in original texts. It explicitly mentioned the U.S. as the subway, which has then been removed. So there is really evidently politically motivated, but there is, I think, a point to this, which is the investigation is currently conducted by Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. And this calls for an international UN led investigation. And I think that would be necessary. Now, the question is, is Russia being honest here? Probably not, but the general kind of direction of an investigation that is led by the UN on this matter, I think goes into right direction. And we have to see whether other kind of attempts in this direction will be more successful in the future. Now, closer to home for you, at least, and this is a new splendid building for the university of Zürich. This is a fun story, so this is in target on Tiger. University of Zürich just got approved 600 million from the canton candle parliament, which is kind of the canton of Zürich is the owner of the university of Zürich. 600 million for a new building at building for 6000 students. So that's a CHF 100,000 per student, which is quite generous. I would say. It's a 7 story building in the middle kind of city center of Zürich designed by hats are going to do. And there was a big political debate, but it wasn't about the 600 million. It was about the art and whether they should be art in the building. And will there be? I think there will be. But less than supposed to, so there was a 2.7 million credit within these 600 million just for the art in the building, and of course then liberal parties and the right-wing parties argued the building itself is art already, and it's very expensive, so why should we pay additionally for art and they manage to lower it to 1.4 million. So they saved 1.3 million on art in this 600 million building and we'll see what's going to hang there now. So I'm given the scandals in the kunst to us down the road. I don't know what they can pull up from their sellers. Maybe they have some pieces lying there that might be suitable for the university. And that's not the only controversy bicycle parking too has sparked debate. Indeed, so if funnily in a 600 million project, there is a huge debate about a CHF 100,000 for bike and bicycle parking because the planning is only that there is going to be bicycle parking for staff, but not for students. So imagine that now you have these 6000 students coming to the building and in summer in Zürich, we're in Central Europe. I mean, I would say, I don't know. Two thirds, three quarter will come into bicycle. So there will be many bicycles. And the question is where are they going to put them? Because there's only a bike parks for staff. And an additional CHF 100,000 would have solved the issue, but this motion was rejected. How odd they could have used the money saved on the art to pay for the bike parking spaces. Even I can work this out. Let's finish by looking at higher the high unemployment rate amongst Chinese youth. This is from le monde. This is from Le Mans. It's reporting from the correspondent in Shanghai. And it says, you know, it's an interesting story about youth and employment. So in the cohort of 16 to 24 years old, Chinese, unemployment is up to 17% from an initial 11% before COVID. So this article really talks about how COVID and the associated lockdowns led to an economic downturn and leads to now a youth in China that being quite either like delusion because they don't have the economic opportunities that they kind of were thinking they would have or kind of extremely distressed because they have to kind of get from job to job to make a living in a city that is still very expensive being Shanghai. So I think there's quite a lot of detail in that article, but it points to a broader issue that China I think the growth model of China might not continue as it was kind of in the past two decades. And associated with that, there is a lot of internal struggles coming which might actually limit China on what they can do internationally as well because they will have to focus on domestic issues more in the coming years, I think. Florian, thank you very much indeed. Please give our love to everybody in the Zürich studio. I can almost smell the coffee from the cafe there. Thank you so much, sergino. That's Florian ugly there. And this is the globalist.