News

Ambassadors newly accredited to Switzerland present their credentials

During his working visit to Norway on 16 and 17 June, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti signed an agreement on carbon storage with Norwegian Minister of Energy Terje Aasland. The agreement will allow Swiss CO2 to be stored in Norway and also enable both countries to trade negative emissions in a state-recognised framework. This represents a pioneering global agreement under the Paris Agreement.

PSI researcher Kirsten Moselund has been selected by the European Research Council ERC to receive funding for her project NEON. Moselund and her group will use the research grant of around 3.3 million Swiss francs to investigate neuromorphic networks for machine learning applications using laser light instead of conventional electronics.

The Director of the National Cyber Security Centre, Florian Schütz, will attend the international World Economic Forum Roundtable in Paris on 17 and 18 June. Under the slogan ‘Rethinking Cyber Resilience in an Era of Complexity’, international experts from politics, business and administration will discuss key issues, current initiatives and joint approaches to improving global cyber resilience in an increasingly complex digital world.

From July to September 2025, the Federal Office for Defence Procurement armasuisse will test the camouflage and subterfuge systems of potential suppliers as part of the multispectral camouflage system project (MSTS) at the Thun and Bure Military Training Areas. Due to the advances made in the development of reconnaissance technologies, it is necessary to procure improved means of camouflage and subterfuge that meet the latest requirements in order to protect deployed members of the Swiss Armed Forces from injury or death and the systems and resources in use from damage. The contract is expected to be awarded at the end of 2025.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has issued a summary penalty order against a former relationship manager at Banque Pictet et Cie SA (Pictet Bank), sentencing him to a six-month suspended custodial sentence for acts of aggravated money laundering. Pictet Bank was sentenced to a fine of CHF 2 million for failing to take all reasonable and necessary measures to prevent these acts from being committed. The criminal investigation established that between June 2010 and May 2013, funds totaling more than USD 4.1 million originating from corrupt payments were transferred from the account of a Brazilian public official at Pictet Bank with the aim of concealing their criminal origin.

On June 16, Empa inaugurated its novel methanation plant. The move-MEGA research project is the first to demonstrate so-called sorption-enhanced methanation at pilot scale – a technology developed at Empa that makes the power-to-gas process more flexible and robust. The produced synthetic methane can serve as a renewable energy carrier, replacing fossil natural gas. In combination with methane pyrolysis, it is also possible to produce CO₂-negative hydrogen from it.

Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, the head of the FDFA, today received the Serbian foreign minister, Marko Đurić, in Bern for an official working visit. Talks focused on bilateral relations, developments in the Western Balkans, the situation in the Middle East, the war against Ukraine and Switzerland's OSCE chairpersonship next year.

You could be interested by new pages which have been published on the OFCOM website between 01.06.2025 and 14.06.2025.

On 16 June 2025, the OECD published its latest development cooperation peer review on Switzerland. The peer review takes place as part of a regular review process that the 33 members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) undergo every six years. The report recognises the continuous development of Swiss international cooperation and formulates recommendations.

The Federal Tax Administration has updated the course listings and bonus shares 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The Federal Government Expert Group on Business Cycles has revised down its forecast for Swiss economic growth. GDP adjusted for sporting events is expected to grow by 1.3% in 2025, followed by 1.2% in 2026 (March forecasts: 1.4% and 1.6% respectively)1. This would mean the Swiss economy growing at a significantly below-average rate in both years. The forecast assumes no further escalation of the international trade conflict. Given the high level of uncertainty, SECO has formulated two supplementary scenarios to the expert group's forecast.